MORMONISM 

THE  ISLAM  OF  AMERICA 

BRUCE  KINNEY 


MORMONISM 

The  Islam  of  America 


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Women  for  Home  Missions 


MORMONISM 

The  Islam  of  America 


By 
BRUCE  KINNEY,  D.D. 

Formerly  Super  inien  dent  of  Baptist  Missions 
in  Utah 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW  YORK  CHICAGO  TORONTO 

Fleming     H.    Revell     Company 

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Copyright,  1912,  by 
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With  remembrance  of  my  mother,  who 
first  taught  me  the  way  of  life,  and 
special  mention  of  my  wife,  whose  lov- 
ing sympathy  and  self-sacrificing  co- 
operation in  service  have  made  this 
work  possible,  this  book  is  dedicated 

to   the    splendid 
WOMANHOOD  OF  AMERICA 


From  the  Editorial  Committee 

THE  title  of  this,  the  latest  of  the  text-,, 
books  issued  by  the  Council  of  Women 
for  Home  Missions,  may  need  a  word 
of  explanation.  It  is  generally  acknowledged 
that  Mormonism  is  similar  to  Mohammedanism 
in  its  endorsement  of  the  practice  of  polygamy, 
and  its  ideas  of  heaven.  Many  other  points  of 
similarity  between  these  systems  have  been  noted 
by  students,  and  the  Book  of  Mormon  has  marked 
resemblance  to  the  Koran.  As  all  ancient  re- 
ligions have  a  modern  equivalent,  Mormonism 
can  justly  be  claimed  to  be  the  modern  form  of 
Mohammedanism,  and  not  incorrectly  termed 
"  the  Islam  of  America." 

While  the  subject  considered  in  this  book 
should  be  approached  only  in  a  spirit  of  fairness 
and  Christian  sympathy,  it  has  become  of  too 
great  importance  in  our  national  life  to  be  omitted 
as  a  topic  for  careful  study.  It  is  in  response  to 
a  wide-spread  realization  that  this  subject  is  a 
national  problem,  and  bears  an  important  relation 
to  Home  Missions,  that  the  Council  of  Women 
presents  this  book. 

In  beginning  its  study,  it  is  wise  to  free  the 
mind     of    some     misapprehension.     Prominent 
5 


6        Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

among  our  national  ideals  are  those  of  religious 
liberty  for  ourselves,  and  toleration  for  our  neigh- 
bours' faith.  No  violation  of  this  principle  is 
involved  in  a  candid,  just  and  sympathetic  study 
of  any  system  of  religious  belief. 

In  the  Handbook  of  our  faith  Christians  are 
exhorted  to  prove  all  doctrines  in  order  rightly 
to  measure  their  truth  and  test  their  moral  stand- 
ards. In  this  spirit  this  text-book  has  been  writ- 
ten. Dr.  Kinney  is  peculiarly  fitted  to  deal  with 
his  subject,  both  from  careful  investigation,  and 
from  personal  acquaintance  with  it  in  Utah. 

The  Mormon  problem  is  not  primarily  a  re- 
ligious one,  nor  should  it  be  so  considered.  The 
hierarchy  which  embodies  this  system  has  ex- 
tended its  influence  into  so  many  lines  of  our 
national  concerns,  that  Mormonism  has  ceased 
to  be  of  merely  theological  or  religious  signif- 
icance. It  must  be  studied  in  its  relation  to  gov- 
ernment and  commerce ;  to  social  conditions ; 
to  its  influence  on  state  policies  and  even  on  the 
utterances  of  the  press,  before  it  can  be  rightly 
understood  as  a  factor  in  our  present-day  nation- 
ality. 

In  all  these  connections  it  is  presented  by  Dr. 
Kinney,  and  while  he  regards  with  Christian 
sympathy  the  followers  of  the  Mormon  religion, 
he  sees,  and  presents  clearly,  the  dangers  inher- 
ent in  the  designs,  ambitions  and  methods  of  the 
all  powerful  hierarchy,  which  absolutely  controls 


From  the  Editorial  Committee          7 

the  affairs  of  the  church  and  the  lives  of  every 
one  of  its  members.  The  undue  influence  in  the 
affairs  of  the  nation  and  the  councils  of  the  gov- 
ernment attained  by  this  powerful  body  makes 
its  beliefs  and  practices  of  national  concern. 
Dr.  Kinney's  point  of  view  is  intelligent,  broad, 
and  just.  The  Council  of  Women  for  Home 
Missions  is  glad  to  give  to  its  readers  and  stu- 
dents a  text-book  so  full  of  carefully  authenti- 
cated information,  and  written  in  a  spirit  of  such 
justice  and  chanty  for  those  deceived,  indeed,  but 
honest  in  their  mistaken  beliefs. 


Preface 

THOUGH  this  book  may  contain  some 
material    not    hitherto    published,   its 
author  lays  no  claim  to  originality  ex- 
cept in  the  arrangement  of  the  material,  although 
every  known   source   of  information   has   been 
drawn  upon.     But  there  is  no  desire  to  evade 
responsibility   for    any   statement    made.     The 
purpose  has  been  to  compile  the  greatest  amount 
of  information  in  the  space  allowed. 

Some  may  ask,  "  Why  take  the  time  to  study 
this  people  when  there  are  only  about  half  a 
million  of  them  ?  " 

There  are  in  China  alone  a  thousand  heathen 
to  every  one  of  the  Mormons.  But  these  people 
have  been  in  our  midst  and  easily  accessible  for 
eighty  years,  and  our  shame  is  all  the  greater  that 
we  have  not  more  fully  taken  the  Word  to  them. 

More  than  that,  there  is  no  other  body  of 
people  from  whom  we  have  so  much  to  fear  in 
proportion  to  their  numbers.  No  one  else  is 
trying  to  set  up  an  imperium  in  imperio  or  to 
control  either  the  state  or  national  government. 
They  are  promising  their  followers  nothing  less 
than  that  they  will  in  time  control  things  po- 
litically in  the  United  States.  Considering  their 
numbers,  no  other  body  of  people  in  the  world 
exerts  so  large  an  influence  upon  the  nation  of 
which  it  is  a  part. 

9 


l  o  Preface 

Nothing  that  may  be  said  in  this  book  must 
be  taken  as  necessarily  applying  to  the  Re- 
organized Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-Day 
Saints,  having  headquarters  at  Lamoni,  Iowa. 
The  official  name  of  the  Utah  church  does  not 
have  the  word  "  Reorganized."  The  Iowa  church 
claims  to  be  the  true  church,  asserts  that  after  the 
death  of  Joseph  Smith  the  control  should  have 
passed  to  his  son  and  namesake,  now  their  head, 
and  that  Brigham  Young  usurped  authority  and 
corrupted  the  practices  and  doctrines  of  the 
church.  The  Iowa  adherents  of  Joseph  Smith 
are  called  "  Josephites  "  by  their  Utah  brethren 
and  they,  in  turn,  hurl  the  epithet "  Brighamites  " 
at  the  Utah  church. 

The  Iowa  church  accepts  the  Book  of  Mormon 
and  some  of  the  Doctrine  and  Covenants,  but 
repudiates  polygamy.  To  further  set  forth  their 
differences  is  not  within  the  scope  of  this  work. 
It  may  be  said,  however,  that  the  Josephites  are 
a  law-abiding  body  of  American  citizens  and  that 
there  is  no  direct  descendant  of  the  original 
prophet  in  the  fellowship  of  the  Utah  church, 
the  present  president  of  that  church,  Joseph  F. 
Smith,  being  a  nephew  of  Joseph  Smith,  Jr. 

The  author  wishes  to  acknowledge  his  special 
indebtedness  for  material  found  in  the  writings  of 
A.  W.  Linn,  Rev.  John  D.  Nutting,  Rev.  M.  T. 
Lamb  and  Ex-United  States  Senator  F.  J.  Cannon. 

BRUCE  KINNEY. 

Topeka,  Kansas. 


CONTENTS 

HISTORY  OF  THE  MORMONS         .         .  1 5 

THE  SACRED  BOOKS  OF  THE  MORMONS          ,       45 

ORGANIZATION  AND  METHODS  OF  THE  MOR- 
MON CHURCH    .          .          .          .  71 

IV.  MORMONISM  AS  A  RELIGION  .  .  101 

WV.  MORMONISM  AS  A  LIFE  .  .  .  .129 

VI.  MISSIONS  AMONG  THE  MORMONS  .  159 

APPENDIX 181 

(a)  BIBLIOGRAPHY  .  .  .  .183 

(^)     RESUME"  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  MORMON 

POLYGAMY  .         .          .         .         .185 

(r)     COVENANT  ON  POLYGAMY  .         .         .186 


ii 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Statue  to  Brigham  Young  and  the  Pioneers   .   Frontispiece 

First  Presidency  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of 
Latter-Day  Saints,  1912          .         .         .  43 

President  John  Henry  Smith 
President  Joseph  F.  Smith 
President  Anton  H.  Lund 

Interior  Mormon  Tabernacle       .         .  .  •       75 

Temple  and  Grounds,  Salt  Lake  City  .  .     1 26 

Saltair  Pavilion  on  Great  Salt  Lake      .  .  .     134 

Interior  Saltair  Pavilion      ,         .         .  .  .164 


ABBREVIATIONS 

BM — Book  of  Mormon.1 

Caswell — City  of  the  Mormons. 

Cat — Catechism.1 

Call — 2,000  Changes  in  the  Book  of  Mormon. 

Comp — Compendium  of  Theology.1 

DC — Doctrine  and  Covenants.1 

Ford — History  of  Illinois. 

Gregg — History  of  Hancock  County,  Illinois. 

Howe — Mormonism  Unveiled. 

JD — Journal  of  Discourses.1 
Juv — Juvenile  Instructor.1 

Key — Key  to  Theology.1 

Linn — The  Story  of  the  Mormons. 
Lamb — The  Mormons  and  Their  Bible. 
Lee — Mormonism  Unveiled.     Mormon. 
LS — Biographical  Sketches  by  Lucy  Smith.1 

News — Deseret  Evening  News.1    Official  Mormon  Paper. 

Pearl-— Pearl  of  Great  Price.1 

Roberts — Mormonism  ;  Its  Origin  and  History.1 

Star — Millennial  Star.     Early  English  Mormon  Paper.1 
Stenhouse — Rocky  Mountain  Saints.     Ex-Mormon. 
Schroeder — Origin  of  the  Book  of  Mormon. 

Witness—The  New  Witness  by  B.  H.  Roberts.1 

1  Published  and  circulated  by  the  authority  of  the  Mormon 
Church. 


I 

HISTORY  OF  THE  MORMONS 


"  The  people  of  the  United  States  are  more  sensible  of  the 
disgrace  of  Mormonism  than  of  its  dangers.  .  .  .  The 
Mormon  Church  is  probably  the  most  complete  organization  in 
the  world  .  .  .  and  so  highly  centralized  is  the  power,  that 
all  these  threads  of  authority  are  gathered  into  one  hand,  that 
of  the  president." — Jonah  Strong. 

"The  real  miracle  in  Mormonism,  then — the  wonderful 
feature  of  its  success — is  to  be  sought,  not  in  the  fact  that  it  has 
been  able  to  attract  believers  in  a  new  prophet,  and  to  find 
them  at  this  date  and  in  this  country,  but  in  its  success  in 
establishing  and  in  keeping  together  in  a  republic  like  ours  a 
membership  who  acknowledge  its  supreme  authority  in  politics 
as  well  as  religion,  and  who  form  a  distinct  organization  which 
does  not  conceal  its  purpose  to  rule  over  the  whole  nation. 

"  Had  Mormonism  confined  itself  to  its  religious  teachings, 
and  been  preached  only  to  those  who  sought  its  instruction, 
instead  of  beating  up  the  world  for  recruits  and  bringing  them 
home,  the  Mormon  Church  would  probably  to-day  be  attracting 
as  little  attention  as  do  the  Harmonists  of  Pennsylvania.'* 

—A.  W.  Linn. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MORMONS 

JOSEPH  SMITH,  JR.,  the  founder  of  the 
Mormon  Church,  was  born  December  23, 
1805,  at  Sharon,  Vermont.  He  was  the 
fourth  of  nine  children.  His  parents  and  rela- 
tives were  all  poor,  ne'er-do-well  visionaries, 
guided  by  dreams,  seeking  hidden  treasures  and 
often  in  conflict  with  the  officers  of  the  law. 
Joseph  was  regarded  by  his  neighbours  as  the 
worst  of  the  lot.  Orson  Pratt,  his  Mormon 
biographer,  says  that  Smith  could  write  with 
difficulty  and  was  absolutely  ignorant  of  the 
branches  taught  in  common  schools  at  that  time. 
As  Joseph  grew  older  he  developed  craftiness 
and  assumed  an  air  of  mystery.  About  1825  he 
bought  a  "  seeing  stone,"  by  which  he  claimed  to 
locate  hidden  treasures  for  which  others  dug  but 
which  they  always  failed  to  find.  In  1827  he 
found  Emma  Hale,  whom  he  persuaded  to  elope 
with  him  because  her  parents  objected  to  their 
marriage.  He  claimed,  also,  to  have  found  in 
the  same  year  the  Golden  Bible.  April  6,  1830, 
he  organized  the  church  at  Fayette,  N.  Y.,  which 
now  bears  the  official  name  of  The  Church  of 
Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-Day  Saints. 
17 


l8     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

Almost  from  the  very  first  the  infant  church 
became  involved  in  various  troubles  with  its 
neighbours. 

It  was  a  time  of  religious  frenzy  over  "  Miller- 
ism  "  and  other  cults,  and  the  preachers  of  this 
new  religion  floated  into  popularity  on  the  tide 
of  this  enthusiasm.  In  1831  the  Mormons  moved 
to  Kirtland,  Ohio,  where  they  built  their  first 
temple.  Here  considerable  numbers  accepted  the 
new  faith. 

Smith  soon  received  a  revelation  in  which  the 
Lord  was  reported  as  saying,  "  I  will  consecrate 
the  riches  of  the  Gentiles  unto  My  people " 
(DC  42).  It  is  said  that  this  was  so  liberally 
interpreted  by  his  people  that  they  were  soon  in 
disrepute  among  their  neighbours,  and  in  1832 
Smith  and  his  associate,  Rigdon,  were  tarred  and 
feathered  by  a  mob.  It  may  as  well  be  stated  at 
once  that  all  of  the  "persecutions  "  suffered  by 
the  Mormons  were  in  reality  prosecutions  which 
arose  not  because  of  their  religious  views  but 
because  they  outraged  human  decency,  violated 
personal  and  property  rights  and  considered  it 
their  privilege  to  "  spoil  the  Gentiles." 

Internal  dissensions  and  financial  troubles  arose 
and  multiplied;  prophecies  failed  of  fruition, 
promised  miracles  were  not  realized,  alleged 
translations  by  Smith  were  proven  fraudulent  and 
many  apostatized.  Men  within  the  inner  circle 
hurled  the  most  serious  charges  of  dishonesty 


History  of  the  Mormons  19 

and  immorality  at  each  other;  fights  occurred 
in  the  temple  in  which  knives  and  pistols  had 
their  part.  In  1837  it  was  falsely  reported  that 
Smith  and  Rigdon  were  to  be  arrested,  and  they 
fled  one  night,  "when  no  man  pursued,"  to 
Mormon  colonies  in  Missouri.  The  Kirtland 
bubble  burst,  hundreds  losing  all  they  had,  and 
that  city  ceased  to  be  an  important  Mormon 
centre.  The  old  temple  is  now  owned  by  the 
Reorganized  Church,  which  has  a  few  followers 
in  that  vicinity. 

The  Missouri  colonies  had  been  established  in 
1831  and  had  been  visited  previously  by  Smith. 
They  had  already  won  the  cordial  hatred  of  their 
neighbours  by  "  consecrating  the  riches  of  the 
Gentiles "  to  their  own  uses.  A  non-Mormon 
mass  meeting  had  declared,  "  It  is  a  duty  we  owe 
to  ourselves,  to  our  wives  and  children,  to  the 
cause  of  public  morals,  to  remove  them  from 
among  us."  The  Mormons  were  ordered  out, 
their  newspaper  office  was  destroyed  "  with  the 
utmost  order,"  and  some  of  the  bishops  were 
tarred  and  feathered.  Finally  they  agreed  to 
leave  but  gave  no  evidence  that  they  meant  to 
keep  their  promise.  After  they  had  agreed  to 
go  Smith  had  a  revelation  that  "  Zion  could  not 
be  moved  out  of  her  place  "  (DC  97).  He  or- 
dered the  Missouri  Mormons  to  build  their  sec- 
ond temple  at  Independence  and  threatened  fire 
and  sword  upon  all  who  refused  to  obey.  This 


2o     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

aroused  the  mob  spirit  and  the  Mormons  were 
driven  from  Jackson  County  into  Clay  County. 

Smith  started  from  Kirtland  with  an  "  Army 
of  Zion  "  which  was  soon  ignominiously  broken 
up  by  disease  which  Smith's  promised  miracu- 
lous power  failed  to  cure.  Peace  lasted  for 
about  three  years  after  this  removal,  but  the 
Mormons  kept  intimating  and  then  claiming  that 
the  land  was  theirs  by  inheritance  from  God,  and 
that  their  "  enemies "  would  be  driven  out. 
Charges  of  thieving,  murder  and  polygamy  were 
made  against  the  Mormons  and  mob  violence 
again  prevailed.  At  last  the  legislature  created 
a  new  county  with  Far  West  as  the  county  seat. 
As  there  were  none  but  Mormons  in  this  county, 
there  was  peace  for  a  time. 

It  was  at  this  juncture,  January,  1838,  that 
Smith  and  Rigdon,  having  fled  from  Ohio,  came 
to  abide  in  Missouri.  The  Missouri  Mormons 
had  lived  in  harmony  among  themselves  up  to 
the  coming  of  Smith  whose  dictatorial  policy 
soon  created  troubles  they  had  not  hitherto 
known.  Many  of  their  prominent  leaders  were 
either  cut  off  by  Smith  or  apostatized.  Finan- 
cial difficulties  now  arose  and  tithing  (from  which 
Smith  and  Rigdon  were  exempt)  was  introduced. 
The  third  temple  was  begun  at  Far  West  and  at 
the  laying  of  the  corner-stone  Rigdon  preached 
an  inflammatory  sermon  declaring  that  a  "  war  of 
extermination"  would  follow  any  interference 


History  of  the  Mormons  2 1 

with  their  plans.  This  again  created  intense  ex- 
citement and  mob  law  prevailed  until  the  militia 
came.  Smith  and  others  were  put  into  jail  on 
the  charge  of  treason  but  soon  regained  their 
freedom  through  bribery  and  fled  to  Illinois. 
The  Mormons  who  remained  were  soon  forced 
to  follow.  That  the  Gentiles  were  not  wholly  at 
fault  is  seen  from  the  statement  of  the  Mormon 
Star  which  said,  "  Our  people  fare  very  well 
and  when  they  are  discreet  little  or  no  persecution 
is  felt."  General  Clark,  who  commanded  the 
militia  and  who  made  the  final  report  upon  this 
unfortunate  affair,  said  that  the  Mormons  had  as 
their  final  object : 

Dominion,  the  ultimate  subjection  of  the  state 
and  the  Union  to  the  laws  of  a  few  men  called 
the  presidency.  .  .  .  These  people  have 
banded  themselves  together  in  societies,  the  ob- 
ject of  which  was  first  to  drive  from  their  society 
such  as  refused  to  join  them  in  their  unholy  pur- 
poses, and  then  to  plunder  the  surrounding  coun- 
try, and  ultimately  subject  the  state  to  their  rule. 

That  this  is  not  an  unjust  representation  ap- 
pears from  the  sworn  testimony  of  T.  B.  Marsh, 
a  president  of  the  Twelve  Apostles,  in  October, 
1838: 

The  plan  of  Smith,  the  prophet,  is  to  take  the 
state ;  and  he  professes  to  his  people  to  intend 
taking  the  whole  United  States  arid  ultimately 


22     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

the  whole  world.  The  prophet  inculcates  the 
notion,  and  it  is  believed  by  every  true  Mormon, 
that  Smith's  prophecies  are  superior  to  the  law 
of  the  land.  I  have  heard  the  prophet  say  that  he 
would  yet  tread  down  his  enemies  and  walk  over 
their  dead  bodies  ;  that  if  he  was  not  let  alone  he 
would  be  a  second  Mohammed  to  this  generation. 

Volumes  of  similar  evidence  could  be  cited  to 
show  that  this  was,  and  is,  the  spirit  of  the  Mor- 
mon Church.  It  is  not  at  all  strange,  then,  that 
the  Gentiles  of  Missouri  adopted  somewhat  dras- 
tic measures  to  rid  themselves  of  such  a  danger- 
ous crowd. 

ttVl  (j 

In  I-&3O.  Hancock  County,  Illinois,  had  only 
483  people.  The  Mormons  colonized  here  and 
as  it  was  in  a  desperate  financial  condition  they 
were  welcomed  as  settlers.  They  took  possession 
at  Nauvoo  and  things  fairly  boomed.  All  sorts 
of  real  estate  schemes  were  launched  and  public 
buildings  were  erected  on  a  grand  scale.  As  all 
political  parties  desired  the  increasing  Mormon 
vote,  an  extraordinary  charter  was  granted  the 
city  of  Nauvoo.  The  mayor  was  a  member  of 
the  city  council  and  also  of  the  municipal  court* 
which  'could  issue  writs  of  habeas  corpus  nullify- 
ing the  actions  of  all  other  courts,  and  its  mili- 
tary force  was  entirely  free  from  state  control. 
Here  for  the  first  time  the  Mormons  realized 
their  ambition  of  a  government  within  a  govern- 
ment. 


History  of  the  Mormons  23 

In  1841  the  corner-stone  of  the  Nauvoo 
Temple  was  laid  with  great  pomp.  The  Nau- 
voo Legion  was  out  in  full  panoply  of  war  with 
Smith — who  had  fled  there  from  Missouri — 
at  their  head.  He  was  arrayed  in  the  uniform 
of  a  lieutenant-general,  assuming  a  rank  held 
by  no  one  since  Washington.  This  temple,  said 
to  have  cost  $1,000,000,  was  destroyed  in  1848 
by  a  fire  supposed  to  be  of  incendiary  origin. 

All  these  things  entailed  large  expense  for  a 
new  community  of  poor  people,  but  Smith  ruled 
with  a  high  hand  and  allowed  no  interference 
with  his  plans.  Soon  the  same  troubles  arose 
that  had  appeared  everywhere  else.  Some  of 
the  best  Mormons  openly  charged  that  Smith 
was  trying  to  persuade  their  wives  and  daughters 
to  become  his  "  spiritual "  wives. 

With  brazen  effrontery  Smith  announced  him- 
self as  candidate  for  the  presidency  of  the  United 
States,  and  wrote  abusive  letters  to  Clay  and 
Calhoun.  Dr.  Bennett,  candidate  with  Smith 
for  the  vice-presidency,  afterwards  said  that 
Smith  sent  over  2,000  missionaries  into  various 
parts  of  the  country  in  behalf  of  his  candidacy. 

The  people  of  Illinois  now  began  to  realize 
what  they  had  on  their  hands  and  wished  they 
had  granted  the  repeated  demands  of  Missouri 
for  the  extradition  of  Smith  as  a  fugitive  from 
the  law.  Open  rebellion  arose  within  the  church. 
Smith  issued  a  proclamation  warning  the  lawless 


24 '   Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

"  not  to  be  precipitate  in  any  interference  in  our 
affairs,  for  as  sure  as  there  is  a  God  in  Israel  we 
shall  ride  triumphant  over  all  oppression." 
In  an  address  he  said  : 

Before  I  will  bear  this  unhallowed  persecu- 
tion any  longer,  before  I  will  be  dragged  away 
again  among  my  enemies  for  trial,  I  will  spill  the 
last  drop  of  blood  in  my  veins  and  will  see  all 
my  enemies  in  hell.  ...  I  will  fight  with 
gun,  sword,  cannon,  whirlwind,  thunder,  until 
they  are  used  up  like  Kilkenny  cats. 

This  bombastic  language  is  strangely  incon- 
sistent with  his  flights  from  Ohio  and  Missouri, 
and  with  the  fact  that  he  and  some  of  his  com- 
panions soon  after  started  to  fly  to  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  but  were  detected  by  Mormon  offi- 
cials and  compelled  to  remain. 

Smith's  language  did  not  have  a  soothing  ef- 
fect but  it  caused  many  public  meetings  to  be 
held.  At  one  in  Warsaw,  the  following  was 
adopted : 

Resolved,  That  the  time  has  arrived  .  .  . 
when  the  adherents  of  Smith  should  be  driven 
.  .  .  into  Nauvoo ;  that  the  prophet  and  his 
miscreant  adherents  should  then  be  demanded  at 
their  hands,  and,  if  not  surrendered,  a  war  of  ex- 
termination should  be  waged,  to  the  entire  de- 
struction ...  of  his  adherents. 

Military  companies  were  organized  on   both 


History  of  the  Mormons  25 

sides  and  the  governor  was  obliged  to  take  a 
hand.  Smith  was  arrested  for  declaring  war 
against  the  state  and  he  and  fourteen  others  were 
lodged  in  Carthage  jail  and  guarded  by  the 
Carthage  Grays.  An  order  was  issued  to  march 
on  Nauvoo  but  it  was  countermanded.  Two 
hundred  of  the  disbanded  Warsaw  regiment  went 
to  Carthage  and  attacked  the  jail,  being  fired  on 
by  the  guard  with  blank  cartridges,  apparently 
by  prearrangement.  The  mob  rushed  the  guard, 
entered  the  jail  and  began  firing  as  soon  as  they 
saw  their  victims.  Smith's  brother,  Hyrum,  fell 
at  the  first  fire.  Joseph  tried  to  defend  himself 
with  a  six-barrelled  pistol  which  some  one  had 
smuggled  to  him.  Finding  it  of  little  avail  he 
rushed  for  the  window,  but  was  shot  from  within 
and  without  the  jail,  dying  instantly,  June  27, 
1844.  While  this  was  murder,  pure  and  simple, 
it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  Smith  was  re- 
sponsible for  inflaming  public  opinion  and  for 
his  defiance  of  the  authority  of  the  state.  The 
manner  of  his  death  gave  to  it  the  colour  of 
martyrdom  and  this  idea  has  been  made  the 
most  of  ever  since. 

Rigdon  wanted  to  be  president,  while  Smith's 
family  claimed  that  the  mantle  "of  the  prophet 
should  fall  upon  his  son  and  namesake.  But 
there  was  another  man  to  be  reckoned  with, 
Brigham  Young.  Young  was  a  man  of  no  edu- 
cation but  of  strong  mental  traits,  shrewd  and 


26     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

ambitious  but,  withal,  wise.  He  had  been  will- 
ing to  bide  his  time  and  had  never  quarrelled 
with  Smith.  As  President  of  the  Twelve  he 
quickly  succeeded  in  deposing  Rigdon  and  be- 
came chief  in  authority.  His  modesty  now  van- 
ished but  he  was  cautious,  for  he  advised  delay 
in  the  filling  of  the  vacancies  in  the  First  Presi- 
dency and  he  never  issued  but  one  written 
prophecy.  He  was  elected  president  after  reach- 
ing Utah. 

Smith's  death  did  not  bring  peace.  In  Jan- 
uary, 1845,  the  infamous  Nauvoo  charter  was  re- 
pealed and  this  made  the  Mormons  defiant. 
Upon  the  advice  of  the  governor,  Young  issued 
a  proclamation  the  following  September  an- 
nouncing that  they  would  remove  to  some  re- 
mote place.  This  movement  was  begun  in  Feb- 
ruary of  the  next  year,  being  hastened  by  the 
finding  of  grand  jury  indictments  against  several 
of  the  Mormon  apostles  for  counterfeiting,  and 
they  were  soon  out  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Illi- 
nois courts.  By  the  following  September  not 
less  than  12,000  Mormons  had  left  Illinois,  most 
of  them  spending  the  winter  at  winter  quarters, 
near  Omaha. 

In  April,  1847,  Young,  with  one  hundred  and 
forty-three  men  and  three  women,  started  West, 
arriving  at  what  is  now  Salt  Lake  City  the  24th 
of  the  following  July.  To  this  day  "  Pioneer 
Day  "  is  celebrated  with  much  more  enthusiasm 


History  of  the  Mormons  27 

by  the  Mormons  than  is  the  national  holiday 
twenty  days  earlier.  The  next  year  Young 
brought  all  of  the  Mormons  to  Utah.  It  must 
be  remembered  that  this  was  then  Mexican  ter- 
ritory, with  the  seat  of  government  two  thousand 
miles  away,  no  settlements  near  and  no  transpor- 
tation facilities. 

Proselyting  in  the  countries  of  northern  and 
western  Europe  was  now  pushed  with  vigour.  It 
is  said  that  in  fourteen  years  50,000  persons  were 
baptized  by  the  Mormons  in  Europe.  Many  of 
these  people  had  their  expenses  paid  to  Utah  but 
each  was  obliged  to  sign  a  bond  as  follows  : 

We  do  severally  and  jointly  promise  and 
bind  ourselves  to  continue  with  and  obey  the  in- 
structions of  the  agent  appointed  to  superintend 
our  passage  thither.  And  that,  on  our  arrival  in 
Utah,  we  will  hold  ourselves,  our  time  and  our 
labour  subject  to  the  appropriation  of  the  Per- 
petual Emigration  Fund  Company  until  the  full 
cost  of  our  emigration  is  paid,  with  interest  if  re- 
quired. 

The  "agent"  (elder)  received  a  commission 
from  the  steamship^companies  for  all  tickets  sold. 
Similar  methods  are  employed  to  this  day. 

In  1 848^  Utah  became  part  of  the  territory  of 
the  United  States  but  for  many  years  the  Mor- 
mons controlled  everything  except  a  few  federal 
appointments.  But  even  with  these  they  often 
so  managed  that  Brigham  Young,  or  some  one 


28     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

who  was  truculent  and  servile  to  their  demands, 
was  appointed  governor.  The  local  offices  were 
filled  ex-officio  by  ecclesiastics.  The  church 
granted  deeds,  gathered  taxes  and  performed  all 
the  functions  of  civil  government.  There  was 
unquestioned  union  of  church  and  state.  Brig- 
ham  Young  fought  the  government  and  the 
coming  of  Gentiles  with  varying  success.  But 
the  discovery  of  gold  in  California  caused  thou- 
sands to  pass  through  Utah  and  the  discovery  of 
gold  in  Utah  made  it  impossible  to  keep  the 
Gentiles  out. 

Young's  family  multiplied  until  he  had,  ac- 
cording to  Linn,  twenty-five  wives  and  forty-four 
children.  This  account  is  vouched  for  by  his 
eldest  son  and  seven  of  his  wives.  But  no  one 
thinks  this  list  is  complete  for  in  almost  every 
town  in  Utah  he  had  women  "  sealed "  to  him 
and  no  one  knows  how  many  children  he  had. 

Young  died  August  29,  1877.  Without  doubt 
he  was  a  master  of  men  but  there  was  a  lot  of 
bluff  in  his  make-up,  and  nothing  of  the  martyr. 
He  was  brainy  but  brutal.  The  useless  cruelty 
of  his  dictatorial  sway  has  scarcely  been  equalled 
in  the  history  of  the  world.  His  achievements 
have  been  overestimated.  His  Cotton  wood 
Canal  with  its  mouth  ten  feet  higher  than  its 
source,  his  beet  sugar  factory,  his  Colorado 
Transportation  Company,  as  well  as  every  distant 
colony  he  planted,  were  absolute  failures.  His 


History  of  the  Mormons  29 

audacious  defiance  of  the  government  came  to 
naught  when  federal  officers  with  some  back- 
bone were  found.  Had  not  gold  been  discovered 
in  California,  causing  the  building  of  the  Pacific 
Railroad,  it  is  doubtful  if  his  settlements  could 
have  lasted.  Beadle  says  that  "  Young  never 
made  a  success  of  anything  but  managing  the 
Mormons.11 

When  his  alleged  exploits  are  carefully  studied 
it  is  found  that  the  halo  of  religious  hero-worship 
has  coloured  the  reports  of  his  credulous  follow- 
ers. Note  some  of  his  failures:  In  1856,  in 
order  to  cut  down  expenses,  he  devised  a  way  to 
have  the  emigrants  push  their  belongings  in 
carts  across  the  continent  from  Iowa  City.  Five 
companies  attempted  the  trip  in  this  way  with 
varying  degrees  of  failure.  One,  under  Chislett, 
started  out  five  hundred  strong  but  only  about 
four  hundred  left  Florence,  Nebraska,  and  on  the 
way  their  carts  gave  out,  buffalo  stampeded  their 
oxen,  supplies  were  not  found  as  promised,  the 
cold  weather  caught  them,  and  before  they 
reached  Utah  sixty-seven  had  died  and  others 
were  maimed  for  life.  According  to  his  own 
letters,  still  extant,  Young  was  directly  respon- 
sible for  this  tragedy,  but  he  sought  to  lay  the 
responsibility  on  others.  The  death  losses  of 
this  overland  "  trek  "  were  much  larger  than  dur- 
ing similar  emigrations  to  Oregon  and  California. 

Young  will  long  be  remembered  for  his  bru- 


30     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

talitics,  but  his  greatest  crime  was  the  Mountain 
Meadow  Massacre.  In  1857  a  party  of  people 
from  Arkansas  started  for  California  by  way  of 
Utah.  Every  unbiased  source  of  testimony  says 
that  they  conducted  themselves  with  propriety, 
yet  on  September  I  ith  of  that  year  they  were  all 
treacherously  massacred  with  the  exception  of  a 
few  children.  The  real  reasons  were,  first,  to 
give  force  to  Young's  edict  forbidding  persons  to 
pass  through  Utah ;  second,  to  take  revenge  for 
the  killing  of  Parley  P.  Pratt  by  an  Arkansan 
whose  wife  Pratt  had  stolen  to  make  his  ninth 
wife ;  and,  third,  to  secure  plunder  valued  at 
about  $70,000.  All  the  way  through  Utah  the 
Arkansas  people  had  been  harassed  by  the  re- 
fusal of  the  Mormons  to  sell  them  food.  With 
their  stock  almost  exhausted,  they  camped  at  the 
Meadows — a  valley  about  five  miles  long  by  one 
wide  and  with  only  one  outlet,  located  about 
three  hundred  miles  southwest  of  Salt  Lake  City. 
On  September  7th  the  party  was  surprised  at 
being  attacked  by  Indians.  They  defended 
themselves  with  such  vigour  that  assault  after 
assault  was  repulsed.  The  evident  plan  of  the 
Mormons  was  to  have  the  whole  thing  done  by 
the  Indians,  but  the  vigour  of  the  defense  made 
a  change  of  programme  necessary.  On  the 
morning  of  the  nth  a  Mormon  came  to  the  be- 
sieged with  a  flag  of  truce.  This  was  the  only 
white  man  they  had  seen,  and  he  was  hailed  with 


History  of  the  Mormons  31 

delight.  He  offered  them  safe  conduct  to  Cedar 
City.  They  hesitated  but,  being  nearly  out  of 
ammunition,  accepted.  John  D.  Lee  then  car- 
ried out  the  rest  of  the  plot.  He  told  them  to 
put  the  wounded  and  small  children  in  wagons, 
that  the  women  and  older  children  must  go  on 
ahead,  and  that  the  men  must  surrender  their 
arms  to  show  their  peaceable  intent  to  the  Indians. 
An  armed  Mormon  marched  by  the  side  of  each 
Arkansas  man  to  "  protect "  him.  When  the 
women,  in  the  advance,  were  in  the  midst  of  an 
Indian  ambush  the  agreed-upon  signal  was  given 
and  each  Mormon  shot  his  Arkansas  companion. 
The  Indians  and  Mormons  then  fell  upon  the 
women  and  children  and  amid  unmentionable 
scenes  killed  all  but  seventeen  of  the  smaller  chil- 
dren. About  a  year  afterwards  these  children 
were  hunted  up  by  the  government  and  returned 
to  Arkansas. 

The  Mormons  held  a  meeting  of  prayer  and 
thanksgiving  because  their  enemies  had  been  de- 
livered into  their  hands,  swore  each  other  to 
secrecy,  and  divided  the  plunder.  No  Indians 
ever  committed  a  more  treacherous  and  indefen- 
sible crime  accompanied  by  more  cruel  and  re- 
volting details  than  this.  The  Mormon  press 
made  no  mention  of  it.  Young,  though  Super- 
intendent of  Indian  Affairs,  forgot  (?)  to  speak  of 
it  in  his  reports.  After  seventeen  years  of 
spineless  conduct  on  the  part  of  the  United 


32     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

States  government  officials,  the  crime  was  finally 
traced  to  its  source  and  Young — coward  that  he 
was — surrendered  John  D.  Lee  as  a  scapegoat 
for  himself  and  others.  Lee  was  executed 
March  23,  1877,  and  all  indictments  against 
others  were  dismissed  by  the  government,  appar- 
ently by  previous  agreement. 

Young  came  to  Utah  with  no  money;  in  spite 
of  the  cost  of  maintaining  such  an  immense 
family  he  left  them  an  estate  of  $3,000,000.  He 
had  no  productive  business  but  the  tithes  he 
wrung  from  his  people.  The  fact  that  after  the 
probating  of  his  will  the  church  sued  for  and  re- 
covered about  one  million  dollars  that  he  had 
willed  to  his  family  shows  how  creditable  (?)  some 
of  his  transactions  were. 

Young  was  succeeded  in  the  presidency  by 
John  Taylor,  and  he  in  turn  successively  by  Lo- 
renzo D.  Snow,  Wilford  Woodruff  and  Joseph 
F.  Smith. 

We  can  pass  over  this  period  with  mere  men- 
tion. It  was  not  until  the  Gentiles  became  nu- 
merous that  there  was  much  political  trouble. 
But  so  high-handed  did  the  political  methods  of 
the  Mormons  become  that  in  the  eighties  the 
Gentiles  organized  the  Liberal  Party  to  offset  the 
Mormon  People's  Party.  In  the  year  1890  the 
Mormons  were  defeated  at  their  own  political 
game  in  Salt  Lake  City  which  went  into  the 
control  of  the  Liberal  Party.  They  realized  that 


History  of  the  Mormons  33 

they  must  change  their  tactics.  They  held  con- 
ferences with  the  political  leaders  and  said : 
"  Some  of  us  are  naturally  Republicans  and  some 
just  as  naturally  Democrats.  We  all  want  state- 
hood. We  can  never  have  it  so  long  as  national 
party  lines  are  obliterated.  Let  us  live  in  har- 
mony and  divide  along  national  party  lines  and 
work  together."  This  was  done,  and  until  the 
American  Party  won  the  city  a  few  years  later, 
the  Mormons  controlled  everything  as  effectively 
as  before  the  coming  of  the  Gentiles.  A  Mor- 
mon never  votes  the  Republican  or  the  Demo- 
cratic ticket — he  votes  the  Mormon  ticket.  He 
votes  with  the  party  and  for  the  men  from  whom 
the  church  can  get  the  most.  For  several  years 
the  Republican  party  in  Utah  and  Idaho  has 
been  controlled  absolutely  by  the  Mormon 
Church. 

After  the  granting  of  statehood,  Brigham  H. 
Roberts,  a  Democrat,  wanted  to  run  for  Con- 
gress but  was  forbidden  by  his  church.  After 
being  disciplined  he  was  permitted  to  run  and 
was  elected,  but  by  vote  of  the  national  House  of 
Representatives  was  not  allowed  to  take  his  seat. 
Moses  Thatcher  was  an  apostle  and  desired  to 
run  for  the  United  States  Senate.  He  was 
"  counselled  "  not  to  do  so.  He  insisted  that  he 
would  do  as  he  pleased.  The  church  defeated 
him  and  deposed  him  from  his  apostleship  and, 
until  his  death,  he  was  one  of  the  few  leading 


34     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

men  in  the  church  who  held  no  ecclesiastical  of- 
fice. October,  1896,  the  church  adopted  a  rule 
in  this  case,  in  part  as  follows : 

Our  position  is  that  a  man,  having  accepted 
the  honour  and  obligations  of  ecclesiastical  office 
in  the  church,  cannot  properly,  of  his  own  voli- 
tion, make  these  honours  subordinate  to  or  even 
coordinate  with  new  ones  of  entirely  different 
character. 

Against  the  secret  protest  of  Gentile  Repub- 
licans, Reed  Smoot,  an  apostle,  was  foisted  upon 
the  Republican  party  of  Utah  as  its  candidate  for 
the  national  Senate.  No  one  would  have  thought 
of  him  as  a  senator  had  not  the  church  thrust 
him  forward.  He  received  his  certificate  of  elec- 
tion in  January,  1903.  An  official  protest  was 
signed  by  nineteen  representative  citizens  of  Salt 
Lake  City  and  backed  by  thousands  of  the  best 
citizens  of  the  state,  of  all  churches  and  parties 
which  were  not  under  the  domination  of  the 
Mormons.  The  official  "  Protest  of  Citizens,"  a 
pamphlet  of  sixty-two  written  pages,  elaborates 
and  proves  from  Mormon  sources  the  following 
points  : 

I.  The  Mormon  priesthood     ...    is  vested 
with  supreme  authority  in  all  things  temporal  and 
spiritual. 

II.  The    First   Presidency   and   the   Twelve 
Apostles  are  supreme  in  the  exercise  and  trans- 
mission and  mandates  of  this  authority. 


History  of  the  Mormons  35 

III.  This  body  has   not  abandoned     .     .     . 
political  dictation  nor  belief  in  polygamy  and 
polygamous  cohabitation. 

IV.  That  this  is  their  attitude  ever  since  the 
Manifesto  of  1890  is  evidenced  by  their  teachings 
since  then. 

V.  These  officials,  of  whom  Reed  Smoot  is 
one,    encourage    and    practice    polygamy    and 
sought    to    pass    a    law   nullifying   enactments 
against  polygamous  cohabitation. 

VI.  The  supreme  authorities,  of  whom  Reed 
Smoot  is  one,  protect  and  honour  these  violators 
of  the  law  all  of  which  is  contrary : 

1.  To  the  public  sentiment  of  the  civilized 
world. 

2.  To  express  pledges  given  to  secure  am- 
nesty. 

3.  To    conditions   upon   which   escheated 
property  was  returned. 

4.  To  the  pledges  given  by  church  officials 
in  their  plea  for  statehood. 

5.  To  pledges  required  by  Enabling  Act 
and  given  in  State  Constitution. 

6.  To  the  following  portion  of  the  Consti- 
tution : 

"  There  shall  be  no  union  of  church 
or  state  nor  shall  any  church  domi- 
nate the  state  or  interfere  with  its 
functions  "  (Art.  I,  Sec.  4). 

7.  To  the  law. 

Every  item  of  this  protest  was  justified  by  the 
testimony,  covering  nearly  three  years,  taken  at 


36     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

Washington.  In  spite  of  a  majority  report  un- 
favourable to  Smoot  from  the  Committee  on 
Privileges  and  Elections,  he  was  seated  by  a 
vote  of  forty-two  to  twenty-eight,  eighteen 
senators  being  paired.  Smoot  admitted  going 
through  the  Endowment  House  of  which  scores 
have  testified  that  every  one  is  required  to  take 
an  oath  like  the  following  : 

You  and  each  of  you  covenant  and  agree  that 
you  will  pray  and  never  cease  to  pray  Almighty 
God  to  avenge  the  blood  of  the  prophets  on  this 
nation,  and  that  you  will  teach  the  same  to  your 
children  and  your  children's  children  unto  the 
third  and  fourth  generation. 

One  of  Smooths  own  witnesses,  Dougal  by 
name,  testified  that  such  was  the  case. 

It  was  admitted  by  President  Joseph  F.  Smith, 
and  by  Smoot,  that  the  latter  could  not  become 
a  candidate  for  the  Senate  without  the  consent  of 
the  Apostolate.  If  a  man  cannot  be  a  candidate 
for  an  office  contrary  to  the  approval  of  the 
apostolic  body,  how  can  he  act  in  that  office 
contrary  to  that  body  ? 

The  Tribune  of  Salt  Lake  has  repeatedly  made 
the  following  charge  which  has  never  been  re- 
plied to  by  any  person  or  paper : 

No  bill  has  ever  been  passed  by  the  Utah 
Legislature  which  has  been  opposed  by  the  chief 
hierarchs  ;  no  bill  has  ever  failed  of  passage  in 


History  of  the  Mormons  37 

the  Utah  Legislature  when  the  chief  hierarchs 
urged  its  passage ;  no  act  has  ever  been  signed 
which  was  opposed  by  the  chief  hierarchs  ;  no 
act  has  ever  been  vetoed  by  a  governor  of  Utah 
whose  approval  was  demanded  by  the  chief  hier- 
archs of  the  Mormon  Church. 

We  have  seen  the  attitude  of  the  Mormons 
towards  the  laws  of  their  own  state  which  they 
helped  to  formulate.  We  will  now  consider  their 
attitude  towards  the  national  government. 

A  Mormon  band  sailed  around  the  Horn,  ar- 
riving at  San  Francisco  in  1846.  When  their 
leader,  Brannan,  saw  Old  Glory  floating  over  the 

city  he  exclaimed :  "  There  is  that  d flag 

again." 

Utah  came  into  the  control  of  the  United 
States  one  year  after  the  Mormons  reached  the 
Salt  Lake  Valley.  Without  authority  from  Con- 
gress they  established  the  state  of  Deseret. 
They  applied  for  its  admission  to  the  Union  but 
so  patent  were  their  intentions  that  their  appli- 
cation was  not  taken  seriously.  Utah  was  made 
a  territory  in  1851  but  that  did  not  prevent  the 
Mormons  from  passing  laws  to  suit  themselves. 
Young  in  one  of  his  official  orders  said :  "  This 
order  does  not  come  from  the  governor  but  from 
the  President  of  the  church." 

For  some  years  the  Mormons  issued  paper 
money,  coined  gold,  and  placed  the  bills  of  the 
defunct  Kirtland  Bank  on  a  par  with  gold.  An- 


38     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

other  prophecy  fulfilled  !  They  levied  duties  and 
taxes  upon  all  persons  and  goods  passing  through 
Utah  to  the  coast. 

We  now  come  to  the  period  when  the  "  Dan- 
ites "  flourished  and  church-inspired  murders 
were  common.  The  Danites,  an  order  of  the 
church,  were  under  the  absolute  control  of  Presi- 
dent Young,  and  the  awful  crimes  of  which  they 
were  guilty  defy  adequate  description.  The 
Borgias  and  the  Inquisition  furnish  no  worse  ex- 
amples of  awful  cruelty  than  the  punishments 
meted  out  to  those  who  offended  the  church.  A 
military  posse  was  needed  to  support  a  marshal 
when  papers  were  served  on  one  of  these  men. 
Judge  Cradlebaugh,  after  several  years  of  judicial 
experience  in  Utah,  told  Congress : 

"  I  am  justified  in  charging  that  the  Mormons 
are  guilty  and  that  the  Mormon  Church  is  guilty 
of  the  crimes  of  murder  and  robbery  as  taught  in 
their  books  of  faith." 

When  federal  officials  began  to  be  sent  to 
Utah,  Young  and  his  followers  abused  them  most 
shamefully  if  not  subservient  to  his  wishes. 
When  Colonel  Steptoe  was  appointed  governor 
to  succeed  him,  Young  declared  in  the  tabernacle, 
February  1 8,  1855  • 

"  For  a  man  to  come  here  (as  governor)  and 
infringe  upon  my  individual  rights  and  privileges, 
and  upon  those  of  my  brethren,  will  never  meet 
with  my  sanction  and  I  will  scourge  such  an  one 


History  of  the  Mormons  39 

until  he  leaves.  .  .  .  Come  on  with  your 
knives,  and  your  swords,  and  your  fagots  of  fire 
and  destroy  the  whole  of  us  rather  than  we  will 
forsake  our  religion." 

David  H.  Burr,  appointed  Surveyor  General  of 
Utah  in  1855,  reported: 

"  The  fact  is,  these  people  repudiate  the  au- 
thority of  the  United  States  in  this  country  and  are 
in  open  rebellion  against  the  general  government." 

When  the  news  reached  Young  that  President 
Buchanan  was  sending  a  military  expedition  into 
Utah  under  Col.  Albert  Sydney  Johnson,  he 
declared  to  a  large  gathering  : 

"  You  might  as  well  tell  me  that  you  could 
make  hell  into  a  powder  house  as  to  tell  me  that 
they  intend  to  keep  an  army  here  and  have 
peace." 

On  September  15,  1857,  Young  issued  a  proc- 
lamation forbidding  "  all  armed  forces  coming 
into  this  territory  under  any  pretense  whatever." 
The  Nauvoo  Legion  had  been  kept  up  in  Utah 
and  Young  sent  orders  to  the  commander,  D.  H. 
Wells,  to  find  the  United  States  troops  and  pro- 
ceed "  at  once  to  annoy  them  in  every  possible 
way.  Stampede  their  animals,  set  fire  to  their 
trains.  .  .  .  Watch  for  opportunities  to  set 
fire  to  the  grass  on  their  windward,  so  as,  if 
possible,  to  envelop  their  trains.  .  .  .  God 
bless  you  and  give  you  success.  Your  brother 
in  Christ," 


4O     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

When  Colonel  Alexander  was  marching  towards 
Utah,  Young  wrote  him  of  his  great  loyalty 
and  advised  him  to  return  to  the  East.  When  he 
saw  that  Alexander  could  not  be  bluffed  he  made 
no  effort  to  conceal  his  rage  and  wrote  him : 

If  you  persist  in  your  attempt  to  locate  an 
army  in  this  territory  .  .  .  with  a  view  to  aid 
the  administration  in  their  unhallowed  efforts  to 
palm  off  their  corrupt  officials  upon  us  and 
to  protect  them  and  the  blacklegs  .  .  .  and 
murderers,  you  will  have  to  meet  a  mode  of  war- 
fare against  which  your  tactics  furnish  you  no 
information. 

Months  of  parleying  followed,  at  the  end  of 
which  time  Young  abjectly  surrendered  and  con- 
sented to  the  coming  of  the  United  States  troops. 

During  Lincoln's  administration  the  govern- 
ment was  having  its  troubles  and  the  Mormons, 
wishing  for  the  downfall  of  the  Union,  became 
more  outspoken.  Young  said  on  one  occasion : 
"  Shame,  shame  on  the  rulers  of  this  nation.  I 
feel  myself  disgraced  to  hail  such  men  as  my 
countrymen."  Fine  words  to  use  of  Lincoln ! 
In  May,  1862,  Col.  P.  E.  Connor  was  sent  to 
Utah  to  hold  their  treason  in  check.  All  sorts 
of  threats  were  made  against  him,  but  in  battle 
array  he  marched  his  few  troops  through  the 
main  streets  of  the  city  to  the  residence  of 
Governor  Harding.  The  governor  made  an 
address  in  which  he  referred  to  the  situation  in 


History  of  the  Mormons  41 

unmistakable  language.  The  Mormons  sent  a 
committee  to  bulldoze  Connor  but  he  said 'to 
them: 

"  Go  back  to  Brigham  Young,  your  master, 
that  embodiment  of  sin  and  shame  and  disgust, 
and  tell  him  that  I  neither  fear  him  nor  love  him 
nor  hate  him — that  I  utterly  despise  him." 

Brigham  Young  prayed  in  the  tabernacle  that 
both  the  North  and  the  South  might  be  destroyed. 
Dakota  with  4,000  population  in  1860,  and 
Nevada  with  less  than  7,000,  sent  troops  to  the 
defense  of  our  government  under  their  own 
state  banners  (Army  Register  VII  and  VIII). 
Utah  had  over  40,000  population  but  not  a  man 
in  general  government  service.  Young  said  in 
1862: 

Let  the  present  administration  ask  us  for  a 
thousand  men,  or  even  five  hundred,  and  I  would 
see  them  damned  first  and  then  they  could  not 
have  them.  (Cries  of  "  Good,  good  "  from  all 
over  the  house.) 

But  when  it  became  evident  that  the  Union 
would  triumph  the  Mormons  speedily  began  to 
make  friends  with  the  federal  government.  No 
one  was  deceived  and  a  sturdier  class  of  govern- 
ment officials  was  sent,  and  the  government  finally 
began  to  assert  itself.  The  story  is  too  long  to 
be  told  in  full,  but  in  1874  the  Poland  Bill  against 
polygamy  was  the  first  step  in  the  right  direction 


42     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

and  this  did  not  increase  the  love  of  the  Mormons 
for  the  government.  Then  came  the  Edmunds 
and  the  Edmunds-Tucker  laws  and  then  the 
Mormons  made  incendiary  speeches  to  the  ap- 
plause of  great  multitudes.  United  States  flags 
were  placed  at  half  mast  and  on  one  occasion,  as 
late  as  1879,  publicly  trailed  in  the  dust. 

In  1877,  Wilford  Woodruff,  afterwards  presi- 
dent of  the  church,  in  the  dedicatory  prayer  of 
the  St.  George  Temple  used  this  language : 

And  we  pray  Thee,  our  Father  in  heaven,  in  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ,  .  .  .  that  Thy  servant, 
Brigham,  may  stand  in  the  flesh  to  behold  the 
nation  which  now  occupies  the  land,  upon  which 
Thou,  Lord,  has  said  that  Zion  shouldst  stand  in 
the  latter  days ;  that  nation  which  shed  the  blood 
of  the  prophets  and  saints ;  which  cry  unto 
God  day  and  night  for  vengeance ;  that  nation 
which  is  making  war  against  God  and  His  Christ ; 
that  nation  whose  sins  and  wickedness  and  abomi- 
nations are  ascending  up  before  God  and  the 
heavenly  host.  .  .  .  Yea,  O  Lord,  that  he 
may  live  to  see  that  nation,  if  it  will  not  repent, 
broken  in  pieces,  like  the  potter's  vessel,  and  swept 
from  off  the  face  of  the  earth  as  with  the  besom 
of  destruction. 

In  brief  the  Mormon  Church  murdered  federal 
officials,  tried  others  for  alleged  offenses  against 
Mormons  in  the  East,  burned  government  sup- 
plies, robbed  the  mails,  intercepted  official  com- 
munications, and  an  illegal  legislature  met  and 


History  of  the  Mormons  43 


did  business  for  ten  years  after  the  territorial 
government1  had  been  established  by  the  national 
government. 

Just  after  statehood  had  been  secured  on  solemn 
promises,1  all  of  which  have  been  broken,  President 
Smith  said  at  the  dedication  of  a  meeting-house 
in  Payson, "  Take  care  of  your  polygamous  wives  • 
we  don't  care  for  Uncle  Sam  now. " 

This  same  man  when  confronted  at  the  Smoot 
trial  with  his  duplicity  and  lawlessness  said : 

I  choose,  rather  than  to  abandon  my  children 
and  their  mothers,  to  take  the  risk  before  the  law. 
I  want  to  say,  too,  that  it  is  the  law  of  my  state, 
and  the  courts  of  my  state  have  competent  jur- 
isdiction to  deal  with  me  in  my  offenses  against 
the  law,  and  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
has  no  business  with  my  private  conduct. 

Much  credit  is  justly  given  to  the  Utah  Battery 
for  its  record  in  the  Philippines.  It  was  sometimes 
called  the  "  Mormon  Battery "  but  this  name 
was  resented  because  there  were  only  119  pro- 
fessed  Mormons  to  225  non-Mormons.  In  one 
town  where  the  Mormons  have  ninety-five  per 
cent,  of  the  population  eleven  men  were  enlisted, 
not  one  a  Mormon — every  one  of  the  eleven  was 
educated  in  a  home  mission  school.  Loyal 
Mormons  did  not  enlist ;  only  the  nominal  ones, 
as  a  rule,  were  found  in  that  battery. 

1  See  page  145. 


44     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

In  the  Salt  Lake  Tabernacle,  on  Sunday,  April 
24,  1898,  Apostle  Brigham  said: 

It  is  wrong  for  us  to  think  of  sending  our 
young  men  to  Cuba.  .  .  .  The  fact  that  they 
would  go  from  these  lofty  mountains  into  the 
malarial  swamps  of  the  South  would  make  them 
much  more  liable  to  catch  fevers  and  perish  than 
volunteers  from  almost  any  other  part  of  the 
country. 

In  the  Smoot  investigation  witnesses  testified 
that  the  church  had  always  appointed  a  steering 
committee  to  tell  the  legislators  what  to  do. 

Shortly  after  the  church  had  compelled  the 
Republican  party  to  send  Smoot  to  the  Senate 
there  was  organized  the  American  Party  of  Utah. 
This  party  does  not  fight  Mormonism  as  a  religion 
but  the  domination  of  the  state  by  the  church. 
Some  Mormons  in  good  standing  supported  this 
party  and  even  became  its  candidates.  They 
were  defeated  in  the  first  municipal  campaign. 
Soon  after  that  the  Republican  state  convention 
voted  down  a  resolution  condemning  the  domina- 
tion of  the  state  by  any  church.  This  gave  the 
American  Party  new  impetus  and  at  the  next 
election  they  won  practically  every  office  in  Salt 
Lake  City  and  remained  in  power  until  the  elec- 
tion of  November,  1911,  when  other  issues  be- 
came involved  and  the  commission  form  of  gov-s 
ernment  was  adopted. 


II 

THE  SACRED  BOOKS  OF  THE 
MORMONS 


Of  a  manuscript  discovered  in  Honolulu  and  now  in  Oberlin 
College,  President  Fairchild  writing  to  the  New  York  Observer  t 
February  5,  1885,  said: 

"  Mr.  Rice,  myself  and  others  compared  it  with  the  Book  of 
Mormon  and  could  detect  no  resemblance  between  the  two  in 
general  detail.  .  .  .  Some  other  explanation  of  the  origin 
of  the  Book  of  Mormon  must  be  found,  if  an  explanation  is  re- 
quired." 

This  was  quoted  approvingly  many  times  by  the  Mormons. 
The  fact  is  that  no  one  ever  claimed  that  the  Honolulu  manu- 
script was  the  original  of  the  Book  of  Mormon.  The  claim  is 
made  that  one  of  Spaulding's  manuscripts  did  constitute  the 
basis  of  the  Book  of  Mormon. 

Some  years  later,  President  Fairchild  wrote  to  Rev.  J.  D. 
Nutting  of  Cleveland :  "  With  regard  to  the  manuscript  of  Mr. 
Spaulding  now  in  the  library  of  Oberlin  College,  I  have  never 
stated  and  know  of  no  one  who  can  state  that  it  is  the  only 
manuscript  that  Spaulding  wrote,  or  that  it  is  certainly  the  one 
which  has  been  supposed  to  be  the  original  of  the  Book  of 
Mormon.  The  discovery  of  this  manuscript  does  not  prove  that 
there  may  not  have  been  another,  which  became  the  basis  of 
the  Book  of  Mormon.  The  use  of  statements  emanating  from 
me  as  implying  the  contrary  of  the  above  is  entirely  unwar- 
ranted." 


II 

THE  SACRED  BOOKS  OF  THE  MORMONS 

THE  Mormons  claim  that  Joseph  Smith 
received  revelations  at  the  early  age  of 
fifteen.  For  this  reason  he  is  often 
called  the  "  Boy  Prophet."  They  also  claim  that 
these  revelations  continued  at  frequent  intervals 
up  to  the  time  of  his  death.  Smith  often  ad- 
mitted his  own  youthful  sinfulness  even  after  the 
time  when  he  claims  to  have  communed  with 
God.  Scores  of  his  neighbours  in  every  state  in 
which  he  ever  lived  have  made  sworn  testimony 
that  immorality  and  criminality  prevailed  in  his 
make-up.  As  a  boy  they  considered  him  the 
worst  of  a  worthless  family.  In  his  after  years 
he  carried  his  shifty  trickery  into  his  real  estate 
and  all  his  other  business  dealings.  His  Kirtland 
Bank,  established  by  revelation,  went  to  the  wall 
after  eight  months,  leaving  nothing  but  ,$150,000 
of  liabilities  and  hundreds  of  ruined  creditors.  It 
was  established  without  authority  and  it  ran  in 
violation  of  the  law  all  the  time  it  did  business. 

Mormons  who  were  closest  to  Smith  were  open 

in  their  charges  of  his  immoralities  with  a  young 

girl  who  lived  in  his  home  in  Kirtland.     He  was 

often  under  indictment  and  for  various  crimes. 

47 


48     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

Sometimes  he  was  freed  by  the  perjury  of  Mormon 
witnesses  or  Mormon  jurors.  He  left  Kirtland 
under  cover  of  night  to  escape  punishment  for 
his  crimes,  he  fled  from  Missouri  under  indictment 
for  treason,  and  when  he  was  killed  the  same 
charge  lay  against  him  in  Illinois.  In  fact  from 
the  time  he  left  Kirtland  until  his  death  he  was  a 
fugitive  from  outraged  law  and  justice. 

It  is  hard  to  find  that  Smith  ever  earned  an 
honest  dollar,  yet  at  his  death  he  was  the  richest 
man  in  Nauvoo.  God  may  reveal  Himself  to  any 
man,  woman  or  child,  but  that  He  would  choose 
such  a  man  as  we  know  Smith  was  all  his  life  to 
be  His  "  vicegerent  on  earth  "  we  cannot  for  a 
moment  believe. 

Smith  was  not  a  willing  martyr.  He  died  with 
a  six-shooter  in  his  hand,  firing  at  his  assailants 
until  his  weapon  was  useless.  Yet  this  is  the  man 
whom  the  Mormons  believe  to  have  discovered 
and  translated  the  "  Golden  Bible."  In  view  of 
all  that  is  known  of  his  ancestry,  natural  bent 
and  character  it  is  not  at  all  strange  that  he 
claimed  to  have  discovered  this  or  anything  else 
that  his  fancy  might  dictate. 

The  accounts  of  how  it  all  occurred  differ 
widely.  The  stories  told  to  various  people  by 
Joseph  himself  differ  on  essential  points.  The 
account  given  by  Smith's  mother  differs  so  widely 
from  his  own  that  the  Mormon  Church  has  tried  to 
secure  and  destroy  all  copies  of  it.  The  account 


The  Sacred  Books  of  the  Mormons     49 

that  Smith  finally  prepared — eleven  years  after  the 
alleged  discovery — differs  most  radically  from  all 
the  rest.  This  version,  that  the  Mormons  wish  to 
have  accepted,  declares  that  Smith  went  into  the 
woods  to  pray,  was  overcome  by  some  mighty 
power,  and  saw  a  pillar  of  light  and  two  persons 
of  ineffable  glory  who  told  him  that  all  churches 
were  wrong.  Some  years  after  this,  they  say,  in 
1823,  a  person,  "  having  a  countenance  truly  like 
lightning,"  came  into  the  room  where  he  was 
praying  and  told  him  of  the  plates  and  two  stones, 
Urim  and  Thummim,  by  which  the  plates  could 
be  translated.  He  then  went  to  "  Mormon  Hill," 
near  Manchester,  Ontario  County,  New  York, 
where  he  found  the  things  mentioned  by  the 
angel  under  a  large  stone  and  in  a  stone  box. 
He  was  forbidden  to  take  them  at  this  time  but 
finally  secured  them  in  1827.  His  mother  said 
that  he  showed  her  all  the  plates ;  Joseph  asserted 
that  he  spoke  to  his  mother  about  them  but  did 
not  show  them  to  her.  He  tried  to  impress  a 
man  named  Hussey  and  showed  him  the  plates 
wrapped  in  canvas  but  told  him  that  if  any  one 
looked  upon  the  plates  it  would  mean  instant 
death  to  him.  Hussey  took  the  risk,  suddenly 
knocked  off  the  canvas  and  disclosed  a  brick — 
not  even  a  gold  one.  Smith,  with  ready  wit, 
then  told  Hussey  that  he  was  "just  fooling" 
him. 

Probably  Joseph  Smith  did  not  intend  at  first 


50     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

to  found  a  new  religion,  but  to  prop  up  the 
waning  faith  in  his  peep-stone  and  its  value.  In 
fact  Peter  Ingersol,  one  of  Smith's  closest  friends, 
made  affidavit  in  1833  that  Smith  said  to  him 
soon  after  his  alleged  finding  of  the  plates  that  it 

was  all  a  fraud  and  "I  have  the  fools 

fixed  and  will  carry  out  the  fun."  Smith's  brother- 
in-law  bore  similar  testimony.  However,  the  easy 
credulity  of  his  mother  encouraged  him.  She  had 
said  to  friends  in  Vermont,  long  before,  that  she 
would  be  the  mother  of  a  prophet. 

The  first  outside  the  family  to  give  credence 
to  Smith's  claims  was  one  Martin  Harris.  He 
was  a  versatile  religious  enthusiast,  having  been 
successively  a  Quaker,  a  Universalist,  a  Baptist 
and  a  Presbyterian.  He  claimed  to  talk  with 
Jesus  Christ,  ghosts  and  the  devil,  and  to  have 
made  one  trip  to  the  moon  which  he  described  in 
detailed  and  lurid  terms.  His  neighbours  said 
that  he  was  a  brute  to  his  wife,  the  dupe  of  Smith, 
and  a  conceited  hypocrite.  Smith  took  Harris 
into  partnership — for  a  consideration — the  latter 
having  hope  of  financial  returns. 

On  Harris'  money  Smith  moved  to  Harmony, 
Pennsylvania,  where  the  work  of  translation 
began,  Harris  for  a  time  acting  as  amanuensis  for 
Smith  who  was  separated  from  the  former  by  a 
screen.  Harris  wanted  to  see  the  plates  and 
Smith  gave  him  a  copy  of  some  of  the  writing  on 
a  paper  which  he  showed  to  famous  linguists  all 


The  Sacred  Books  of  the  Mormons     51 

of  whom  declared  that  it  was  a  palpable  and 
aggravated  fraud. 

Smith  was  now .  living  near  his  wife's  family 
but  he  never  won  their  regard,  and  Isaac  Hale, 
his  father-in-law,  declared  that  the  whole  Book 
of  Mormon  was  "  a  silly  fabrication  of  falsehood 
and  wickedness  got  up  for  speculation  and  with 
a  design  to  dupe  the  credulous  and  unwary." 

Harris  declared  that  he  would  put  no  more 
money  into  the  enterprise  unless  he  could  show 
his  wife  the  translation.  Right  here  the  Lord 
seems  to  have  made  a  mistake,  for  Smith  says 
that  he  received  a  special  revelation  directing  him 
to  satisfy  the  curiosity  of  Mrs.  Harris  who,  failing 
to  convince  her  husband  of  his  folly,  stole  the 
papers  and  they  were  never  seen  again.  When 
Smith  heard  of  this  he  exclaimed,  "  Oh,  my  God  ! 
all  is  lost."  He  had  kept  no  copy  and  knew 
that  he  could  not  produce  another  identical 
"  translation  "  and  feared  that  Mrs.  Harris  would 
produce  the  original  should  he  try  it.  This 
incident  caused  a  break  between  Smith  and 
Harris  and  a  "  revelation  "  (DC  3)  declared  Harris 
"  a  wicked  man." 

For  months  the  translation  languished  and 
then  a  "  mysterious  stranger  "  appeared  at  the 
Smith  home  on  various  occasions.  This  was 
Sydney  Rigdon.  Rigdon  had  been  reared  in 
western  Pennsylvania  and  had  become  a  Baptist 
preacher.  In  1821  he  became  pastor  of  the  First 


52     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

Baptist  Church  of  Pittsburgh  where  he  was  soon 
expelled  for  doctrinal  error.  Soon  after  he  be- 
came associated  with  Campbell  and  Scott  in  the 
organization  of  the  Disciple  Church. 

Some  facts  about  Rigdon  may  well  be  noted 
here  showing  that  he  was  fundamentally  dis- 
Jionest.  In  1822-23  he  showed  Rev.  John 
Winter  a  "  Romance  of  the  Bible,"  and  told  him 
that  a  minister  named  Spaulding  had  written  it. 
In  1839  he  declared  in  writing  that  there  was  no 
printer  in  Pittsburgh  by  the  name  of  Patterson 
while  he  lived  there.  But  Spaulding  left  his 
manuscript  with  a  printer  named  Patterson,  and 
it  can  be  proved  that  Rigdon  knew  him  in- 
timately. Alexander  Campbell  charged  that 
Rigdon  had  advanced  information  about  the  Book 
^of  Mormon  and  manuscript  in  his  possession 
which  corresponded  to  the  Book  of  Mormon  as 
afterwards  published.  A  niece  of  Mrs.  Rigdon 
declared  that  she  had  seen  and  read  a  manuscript 
of  similar  import  that  was  in  Rigdon's  possession. 
For  months  before  Rigdon  was  "  converted  "  to 
Mormonism  he  preached  doctrines  that  were 
afterwards  recognized  as  being  peculiar  to  that 
religion.  In  1830  he  said  to  Dr.  S.  Rosa,  of 
%  Painesville,  Ohio,  that  a  new  religion  would  soon 
be  springing  up. 

When  the  real  work  of  getting  out  the  Book 
of  Mormon  began  both  Spaulding  and  his  printers 
were  dead.  On  his  death-bed  he  charged  Rigdon 


The  Sacred  Books  of  the  Mormons     53 

with  having  stolen  his  manuscript.  When  the 
Mormon  elders  first  came  to  his  place  in  Ohio, 
Rigdon  invited  them  into  his  pulpit.  After 
making  a  great  pretense  at  defending  his  own 
doctrines  he  was  miraculously  converted  one 
night  and  baptized  and  ordained  the  next  day  ! 
So  much  for  Rigdon ! 

The  prophet's  wife  now  acted  as  scribe  in  the 
work  of  translation  until  Oliver  Covvdry,  black- 
smith and  school-teacher,  came  to  Smith's  help. 
The  accounts  of  the  method  of  translation  vary 
as  much  as  the  accounts  of  the  finding  of  the 
golden  plates.  Smith  said  at  one  time  that  he 
used  his  peep-stone.  At  another  time  he  said 
that  he  used  the  Urim  and  Thummim.  The  work 
was  at  last  completed  and  a  publisher  sought. 
After  many  had  declined  to  publish  the  book 
Egbert  B.  Grandin,  of  Palmyra,  N.  Y.,  agreed  to 
print  and  bind  5,000  copies  for  $3,000.  Harris* 
farm  seems  to  have  restored  him  to  favour  in  spite 
of  his  wickedness,  and  this  was  mortgaged  to 
guarantee  payment. 

In  spite  of  Smith's  oft-repeated  declaration 
that  "  the  translation  was  just  as  it  was  engraven 
on  the  plates,  precisely  in  the  language  then 
used,"  the  printers  refused  to  set  it  according  to 
copy,  so  poor  were  the  spelling  and  grammar. 
Finally  Smith  was  obliged  to  agree  to  many 
changes. 

In    1830  the  book  was  offered  to  the  public 


54     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

and  Harris  held  exclusive  rights  of  sale  on  con- 
dition that  he  would  never  sell  it  for  less  than 
one  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents  per  copy ;  but 
no  one  wanted  it  at  any  price.  The  mortgage 
on  Harris'  farm  was  finally  foreclosed  to  satisfy 
the  debt. 

Solomon  Spaulding  graduated  from  the  Dart- 
mouth School  of  Theology  in  1787.  Failing  to 
succeed  as  a  preacher  he  moved  to  what  is  now 
Conneaut,  Ohio,  became  an  infidel  and  turned  his 
attention  to  writing,  with  the  special  intention  of 
discrediting  the  Holy  Scriptures.  His  first  story 
pretended  that  a  manuscript  found  in  a  stone  box 
in  a  cave  gave  an  account  of  the  aborigines  of 
America  who,  he  claimed,  were  descended  from 
the  lost  Ten  Tribes  of  Israel. 

In  1833  when  a  Mormon  elder  went  to  Con- 
neaut and  in  a  public  meeting  read  copious  ex- 
tracts from  the  Book  of  Mormon,  Solomon  Spauld- 
ing's  brother  John  was  in  the  audience.  This 
good  man,  being  "  eminently  pious, "  was  much 
grieved  that  the  writings  of  his  dead  brother 
should  be  thus  prostituted  for  the  purposes  of 
religious  deception,  and  he  publicly  protested. 
He  declared  that  he  recognized  manufactured 
proper  names,  peculiar  idioms,  historical  ideas  and 
data  which  he  remembered  as  having  seen  in  his 
brother's  story.  A  dozen  other  Conneaut  people 
who  knew  Solomon  Spaulding  and  his  story 
made  affidavit  to  the  same  effect 


The  Sacred  Books  of  the  Mormons     55 

The  Spaulding  manuscript  which  is  now  in 
Oberlin  College l  was  the  first  rough  draft  of  the 
story  which  was  afterwards  written  over  with 
Scriptural  terminology.  Members  of  the  Spauld-% 
ing  family  testify  to  this.  It  was  the  latter  version 
that  was  stolen  from  the  printers  by  Rigdon  and 
which  became  the  basis  for  the  Book  of  Mormon. 

The  title  "  Manuscript  Found  "  is  not  on  the 
Oberlin  copy,  which  has  been  published  by  the 
Mormons  to  refute  any  possible  connection  • 
between  Spaulding  and  the  Book  of  Mormon. 
However,  that  title  was  on  the  manuscript  taken 
by  Spaulding's  widow  to  the  home  of  her  brother, 
W.  H.  Sabine,  at  Onondaga  Valley,  N.  Y.  If 
there  was  no  relation  between  the  Spaulding  story 
and  the  Book  of  Mormon  the  reasonable  query  is, 
how  did  the  modern  Mormons  hit  upon  that 
title  when  they  published  the  manuscript  ? 

What  was  the  underlying  motive  for  all  this 
manifest  deception  ?  Rigdon  was  undoubtedly 
piqued  at  being  expelled  by  the  Baptists,  and 
angered  at  being  set  aside  by  Campbell  in  the 
Disciples'  organization.  For  him  and  for  the 
others,  in  addition  to  the  thirst  for  prominence, 
there  was  the  absorbing  desire  for  money.  All 
ofnheir  unlawful  schemes  speak  the  same  word. 
Even  their  revelations  from  God  declare  that  all 
money  must  be  given  into  the  hands  of  the  priest- 
hood (DC  119),  yet  Smith,  a  man  of  magnificent 

1  See  page  46. 


56     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

physique,  was  not  to  labour  but  was  to  be  sup- 
ported. 

Greed  of  power  and  greed  of  pelf  were  reigning 
motives  in  the  life  of  Smith.  Nowhere  is  this 
more  clearly  seen  than  on  the  title  page  of  the 
Book  of  Mormon  where  he  claims  to  be  "  Author 
and  Proprietor."  To  believe  that  the  whole 
scheme  was  a  conscious  fraud  is  not  out  of  har- 
mony with  the  known  facts  in  the  private  and 
public  careers  of  the  originators  of  Mormonism 
both  before  and  after  the  publication  of  the  Book 
of  Mormon.  But  the  church  asserts  : 

We  consider  the  Bible,  the  Book  of  Mormon, 
book  of  Doctrine  and  Covenants,  Pearl  of  Great 
Price,  and  the  Sayings  of  Joseph,  the  Seer,  our 
guides  in  faith  and  doctrine.  The  first  four  have 
been  adopted  as  such  by  the  Saints  in  General 
Conference  (Pref.  to  Comp.). 

In  every  edition  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  the 
testimony  of  the  "  Three  Witnesses  "  and  also 
of  the  « Eight  Witnesses "  is  published.  The 
"  Three"  were  Cowdry,  David  Whitmer  and 
Martin  Harris.  Four  of  the  "  Eight  "  were  Whit- 
mers,  the  others  being  Hiram  Page,  their  brother- 
in-law,  and  three  members  of  Smith's  own  family. 
Smith  repeatedly  said  that  no  one  but  himself 
could  look  on  the  plates  and  live.  But  he  after- 
wards declared  that  they  "  teased  "  him  so  that  he 
finally  had  a  revelation  (DC  5)  in  which  the 


The  Sacred  Books  of  the  Mormons     57 

Lord  said  that  he  might  show  the  plates  to  three 
of  his  servants — "  And  to  none  else  will  I  grant 
this  power  to  receive  this  testimony  among  this 
generation."  Smith  then  tells  that  he  took  the 
"  Three  "  into  the  woods,  left  Harris  by  himself 
and  went  further  into  the  woods  with  Cowdry  and 
Whitmer  and,  in  answer  to  prayer,  the  angel 
of  the  Lord  came  and  showed  them  the  plates. 
Smith  says  that  he  then  went  to  where  Harris  was 
engaged  in  prayer  and  told  him  of  their  success 
and  in  response  to  further  prayer  "  the  same 
vision  was  opened  to  our  view,  at  least  it  was  to 
me  again, "  and  Harris  rejoiced  with  the  others. 
The  "  Eight "  in  their  testimony  say : 

We  have  seen  the  plates  which  contain  this 
record,  .  .  .  and  we  also  testify  that  we  have 
seen  the  engravings  which  are  upon  the  plates ; 
and  they  have  been  shown  to  us  by  the  power  of 
God  ...  an  angel  came  down  from  heaven 
and  he  brought  and  laid  before  our  eyes  and  it  is 
by  the  grace  of  God  that  we  beheld  and  saw  the 
plates. 

Is  it  not  justifiable  to  inquire  right  here  as  to 
whether  the  Lord  had  forgotten  that  He  said,  * 
when  He  showed  the  plates  to  the  "  Three, "  that 
no  one  else  in  that  generation  should  see  them  ? 
The  general  reputation  of  these  eleven  witnesses 
was  bad  even  among  the  Mormons.  In  1838 
Cowdry  and  two  of  the  Whitmers  were  driven 


58     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

out  of  Far  West  by  the  Danites,  and  Smith 
and  Rigdon  had  the  most  serious  charges  made 
against  them  by  their  own  brother  Mormons. 
Many  of  the  eleven  apostatized  and  died  out  of 
the  faith  of  Mormonism.  Cowdry  said  upon  one 
occasion  that  he  was  willing  to  expose  Mormon- 
ism and  that  when  he  signed  that  testimony  he 
"  was  not  one  of  the  best  of  men."  In  the 
revelation  granting  permission  to  see  the  plates 
it  was  said,  "  It  is  by  faith  you  shall  see  them." 
David  Whitmeri  afterwards  denied  that  he  had 
actually  seen  the  plates  and  said :  "  Suppose  you 
had  a  friend  whose  character  was  such  that  you 
knew  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  lie ;  then  if  he 
described  a  city  to  you  which  you  had  never  seen, 
could  you  not,  by  the  eye  of  faith,  see  the  city  just 
as  he  described  it  ?  " 

Harris  afterwards  told  a  lawyer  of  Palmyra  that 
he  did  not  actually  see  the  plates  "  as  I  do  that 
pencil  case,  yet  I  saw  them  with  the  eye  of 
faith  .  .  .  though  at  the  time  they  were 
covered  up  with  a  cloth."  He  evidently  had 
forgotten  that  the  Lord  had  warned  him  to  say 
nothing  about  this  experience  except  to  insist 
that  he  had  seen  the  plates. 

The  Book  of  Mormon  claims  to  be  the  record 
of  three  colonies  of  people  who  came  from  the 
old  world  in  ancient  times,  and  lived  on  this  con- 
tinent for  2,500  years.  The  first  party,  consist- 
ing of  about  twenty-five  people  under  Jared,  left 


The  Sacred  Books  of  the  Mormons     59 

Asia  soon  after  the  flood  and  after  floating  three 
hundred  and  forty-four  days,  landed  on  these 
shores.  They  prospered  and  multiplied  and 
finally  divided  into  two  rival  nations  which  ex- 
terminated each  other  with  the  exception  of  one 
man,  Coriantur. 

About  this  time,  600  B.  c.,  another  party 
under  Lehi  left  Jerusalem  and  after  drifting 
across  the  Pacific  Ocean,  landed  upon  the  shores 
of  South  America.  As  they  multiplied,  the  de- 
scendants of  two  brothers,  Nephi  and  Laman, 
became  two  nations.  In  about  nine  years,  a 
third  party  left  Jerusalem  headed  by  one  of  the 
sons  of  King  Zedekiah  and  settled  somewhere 
in  South  America.  About  four  hundred  years 
later  they  were  discovered  by  the  Nephites  and 
absorbed  into  their  own  nation. 

The  Lamanites  (Indians)  multiplied  and  popu- 
lated all  of  South  America,  and  the  Nephites 
spread  all  through  North  America,  where  they  en- 
joyed a  highly-developed  Christian  civilization. 
It  is  claimed  that  Jesus,  after  His  ascension  as  re- 
corded in  the  Bible,  visited  this  continent  and 
repeated  His  wonderful  life  and  works.  Very 
soon  all  of  the  Lamanites  and  Nephites  were 
converted  and  two  hundred  years  of  peace,  pros- 
perity and  purity  followed,  only  to  be  disturbed 
by  a  terrible  apostasy  on  the  part  of  the  Laman- 
ites who  finally  destroyed  all  of  the  Nephites 
about  the  year  384  A.  D.,  and  were  left  in  un- 


60     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

disturbed  possession  of  the  Western  hemisphere 
until  the  coming  of  Columbus.  A  man  named 
Mormon  was  commander-in-chief  of  the  Ne- 
phites.  Before  their  total  destruction  he  gathered 
all  their  sacred  writings  together  and  made  a 
careful  condensation  of  the  same  which  he  com- 
mitted to  his  son  Moroni  who,  in  turn,  hid  them 
in  the  hill  where  Smith  alleges  that  he  found 
them. 

The  effect  of  the  whole  book  is  disappointing 
for,  outside  of  the  passages  quoted,  or,  rather, 
plagiarized  from  the  Bible,  there  is  absolutely 
nothing  uplifting  or  inspiring.  One  looks  in 
vain  for  a  Twenty-third  Psalm  or  a  fourteenth 
chapter  of  John.  Everything  is  stilted,  compli- 
cated, diffuse,  meaningless  or  even  brutal.  Many 
passages  might  be  quoted  which  would  be  more 
easily  understood  if  only  about  one-third  as 
many  words  had  been  used.  Even  Jesus,  whose 
simple,  direct,  incisive  language  is  the  admiration 
of  the  world,  is  represented  as  using  one  sentence 
which  is  so  repetitious  as  to  be  all  but  meaning- 
less (Nephi  21  :  2-7.  Originally  one  sentence). 

Whoever  was  the  author  of  this  book  had 
various  pet  words  and  expressions  which  are 
used  over  and  over  again  in  spite  of  the  absurd- 
ity. The  words  "  more  "  and  "  more  part "  are 
thus  repeated ;  for  example :  "  For  a  more  part 
history  are  written  upon  nine  other  plates " 
(Nephi  4:  14).  Similarly  absurd  uses  of  this 


The  Sacred  Books  of  the  Mormons     6i 

expression  are  frequent.1  It  should  be  explained 
that  the  reader  may  never  find  some  of  these  ex- 
pressions in  the  present  editions  of  the  Book  of 
Mormon.  The  Mormons  are  constantly  making 
changes  in  the  wording  and  grammar  of  the 
book.  In  1898  Lamoni  Call,  of  Bountiful,  Utah, 
printed  a  pamphlet  giving  more  than  two  thou- 
sand changes  that  had  been  made  in  the  Book 
of  Mormon  up  to  that  time.  Some  of  the 
changes  entirely  alter  the  meaning  as  well  as 
the  wording.  Inspiration  is  claimed  for  the  trans- 
lation as  well  as  the  original  of  the  Book  of  Mor- 
mon. Smith  often  repeated  the  statement  that 
"  the  Book  of  Mormon  is  the  most  correct  of  any 
book  on  earth."  Martin  Harris  said : 

There  were  no  delays  over  obscure  passages, 
no  difficulties  over  the  choice  of  words,  no  stop- 
pages from  the  ignorance  of  the  translator ;  no 
time  was  wasted  in  investigation  or  argument 
over  the  value,  intent  or  meaning  of  certain  char- 
acters. .  .  .  The  translation  of  the  char- 
acters appeared  on  the  Urim  and  Thummim 
sentence  by  sentence,  and  as  soon  as  one  was 
correctly  transcribed  the  next  would  appear. 
.  .  .  But  if  not  correctly  written  it  remained 
until  corrected  ("  Myth  of  Mormonism,"  p.  91). 

Until  the  writing  was  correct  in  every  particu- 
lar the  words  last  given  would  remain  before  the 

1  See  Book  of  Mormon,  fourth  Chicago  edition,  1908,  pp. 
18,  447,  448,  487,  494,  495,  546,  etc.  Other  pages  given  re- 
fer to  same  edition. 


62     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

eyes  of  the  translator  and  not  disappear  (Whit- 
ney's "  Brief  History,"  p.  28.  Mormon  author- 
ity). 


The  accounts  of  alleged  miracles  given  in  the 
Book  of  Mormon  are  puerile  in  the  extreme. 
Passing  by  the  absurdities  of  making  fire,  the 
brass  ball  with  its  spindles  and  pointers  and  the 
strange  compass  (pp.  36,  38,  40,  46),  we  notice 
the  curse  of  the  Lamanites  which  was  a  dark 
skin  given  to  them  (who  had  been  fair)  that  they 
might  not  be  so  enticing  to  the  Nephites  (p.  72). 
But  five  hundred  years  afterwards,  on  their  be- 
coming Nephites,  their  skin  became  fair  again 
(p.  480).  One  of  their  greatest  absurdities  is  the 
story  of  Jared's  barges.  They  were  built  "  ac- 
cording to  the  instruction  of  the  Lord"  (p.  4/3), 
and  the  bottom,  sides,  ends  and  doors  were 
"  tight  like  a  dish/'  and  "  the  length  thereof  was 
the  length  of  a  tree"  (p.  576).  These  ships 
were  so  tight  that  the  people  could  not  breathe, 
so  Jared  cried  to  the  Lord  for  relief  and  was  in- 
structed to  make  holes  in  the  top  and  in  the 
bottom.  Even  then  there  was  no  light  and  the 
people  cried  out  against  the  darkness.  The 
Lord  was  obliged  to  ask  the  brother  of  Jared 
what  to  do  and  he  readily  solved  the  difficulty 
for  he  went  forth  into  the  mountain  and  "  did 
moulten  out  of  a  rock  sixteen  small  stones ;  and 
they  were  white  and  clear  even  as  transparent 


The  Sacred  Books  of  the  Mormons     63 

glass/'  These  upon  being  touched  by  the  finger 
of  the  Lord  became  luminous  and  were  placed  in 
the  vessels  and  gave  light. 

The  impossible  statements  regarding  the  geog- 
raphy of  the  world,  the  increase  of  people,  the 
feats  achieved,  are  too  numerous  to  mention. 

There  is  a  long  prophecy  (pp.  65-67)  in  refer- 
ence to  Joseph  Smith,  in  which  it  is  said  that  he 
was  to  be  a  descendant  in  direct  line  of  the  elder 
Joseph  through  Lehi.  Now  the  account  further 
says  that  all  the  Nephites  were  destroyed  and 
only  Lamanites  (Indians)  were  left  upon  this 
hemisphere.  Therefore  Smith  must  have  been 
an  Indian,  but  his  mother  tells  us  that  he  was 
descended  from  one  Robert  Smith  who  lived  in 
England  three  hundred  years  ago.  It  will  not  do 
to  say  that  he  was  of  the  "  spiritual "  seed  of  Lehi 
for  in  the  prophecy  the  expression  "  fruit  of  thy 
loins  "  is  used  too  often  in  referring  to  Joseph. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  career  of  the  Nephites, 
while  pressed  upon  every  side  by  the  Lamanites, 
the  Nephite  leader,  Mormon,  writes  to  the  com- 
mander of  the  Lamanites  that  if  he  will  meet  him 
at  the  hill  Cumorah  he  will  give  battle.  This  hill 
was  5,000  miles  from  the  home  of  the  Lamanites 
and  3,000  miles  from  the  nearest  cities  of  the 
Nephites  (p.  559). 

These  Lamanites  were  a  peculiar  people.  In 
one  place  they  are  represented  as  naked,  ferocious 
savages  who  do  not  know  enough  to  make 


64     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

helmets  and  other  weapons  of  defense.  Yet  it  is 
also  said  that  they  possessed  great  cities,  sanctu- 
aries, dwelling  houses,  temples,  flocks  and  herds, 
and  contended  for  universal  salvation  (pp.  240, 
284,  297,  298,  361  to  366). 

There  are  various  anachronisms  in  the  book. 
In  many  places  expressions  are  used  that  were 
particularly  familiar  in  the  days  when  the  book 
was  put  upon  the  market.  We  find  "  arms  of 
his  flove  "  (p.  59),  "  chains  of  hell,"  "  redeeming 
love,"  "  change  of  heart "  and  "  the  song  of 
redeeming  love  "  (pp.  246-247). 

The  circulation  of  the  blood  was  not  known 
until  1619  A.  D.,  yet  King  Benjamin  (126  B.  c.) 
thus  speaks  of  Christ : 

And  lo,  He  shall  suffer  temptations,  and  pain  of 
body,  hunger,  thirst  and  fatigue,  and  even  more 
v  than  man  can  suffer,  except  it  be  unto  death ;  for 
behold,  blood  cometh  from  every  pore  (p.  167). 

It  was  many  centuries  after  this  that  science 

knew  anything  about  pores.     On  pages  324  and 

^463,   writers  before  the  time  of  Christ  describe 

in  a  modern  way  the  movements  of  the  sun  and 

earth. 

Hundreds  of  years  before  they  were  recorded  by 
John  in  Revelation  xxii.  n,  Nephiis  represented 
as  quoting  the  words  there  spoken  by  our  Lord 
(p.  80).  Again  this  same  man  quotes  the  Apostle 
Paul  in  the  past  tense,  anticipating  by  hundreds 


The  Sacred  Books  of  the  Mormons     65 

of  years  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  First  Corinthians. 
Other  similar  "  breaks  "  might  be  mentioned. 

It  is  alleged  that  this  book  was  compiled  by 
Mormon  1,500  years  ago,  from  the  records  of  the 
Nephites  made  more  than  a  thousand  years 
before  that ;  yet  more  than  one-fourth  of  the 
entire  book  is  made  up  of  quotations,  or  garbled 
quotations,  from  the  King  James  Version  of  the 
Bible.  If  the  pretended  dates  of  the  Book  of 
Mormon  are  true,  Jesus  was  a  plagiarist  quoting 
parrot-like  the  sayings  that  Mormon  sages  had 
uttered  centuries  before  He  lived.  There  are 
scores  of  cases  where  modern  words,  expressions 
and  idioms,  wholly  unknown  two  centuries  ago,  • 
are  put  into  the  mouths  of  crude  savages  of  2,500 
years  ago. 

This  book  claims  that  the  people  mentioned  in 
it  lived  on  this  hemisphere  from  before  the  time 
of  Christ  until  the  white  man  came  from  Europe. 
There  are  well  preserved  ruins  and  other  remains 
in  abundance  throughout  Mexico,  Central  and 
South  America  where  their  great  cities  are  sup- 
posed to  have  been.  We  have  a  fairly  good 
idea  of  the  life,  civilization,  religion,  habits,  laws 
and  customs  which  these  people  had,  yet  they 
correspond  in  no  respect  to  the  representation 
made  in  the  Book  of  Mormon.  The  Mormons 
would  have  us  believe  that  there  was  one  univer- 
sal language  on  this  continent  and  they  show 
specimens  of  it.  The  fact  is  that,  during  the  very 


66     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

period  of  which  their  book  tells  us,  there  were 
unnumbered  scores  of  different  languages  and 
peoples.  Their  writings  remain  until  this  day, 
but  not  one  of  them  is  in  any  respect  similar  to 
%  that  which  they  claim  alone  existed  and  which 
appeared  on  the  golden  plates. 

The  authentic  cities  of  the  ancient  world,  or 
their  ruins,  exist  to-day,  and  in  most  instances 
they  have  the  same  names.  But  not  one  of  the 
cities  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  has  come  down  to 
us  nor  is  it  known  where  their  ruins  are.  Ac- 
cording to  the  Book  of  Mormon,  the  Ne- 
phites  and  Lamanites  were  originally  all  Jews, 
with  certain  well  defined  physical  characteristics 
that  remain  the  world  over  and  through  the 
centuries.  But  the  skulls  and  human  bones  that 
^have  been  preserved  from  that  period  until  this 
day  bear  no  resemblance  to  the  Hebrew  contour, 
and  give  us  every  reason  for  believing  that  no 
white  race  ever  lived  on  this  continent  until  the 
coming  of  the  Spaniard.  The  whole  alleged 
civilization  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  is  a  myth. 
The  writer  incorporated  into  the  life  of  its  people 
conditions  and  ideas  identical  with  those  held  in 
1825  with  reference  to  the  Mound  Builders  of 
the  Ohio  Valley. 

There  is  not  the  slightest  evidence  that  the 
aborigines  of  this  continent  anywhere  knew  any- 
thing about  the  practical  use  of  iron,  steel  and 
brass.  However,  we  read : 


The  Sacred  Books  of  the  Mormons     67 


And  I  did  teach  my  people  to  build  buildings ; 
and  to  work  in  all  manner  of  wood,  and  of  iron, 
and  of  copper,  and  of  brass,  and  of  steel,  and  of 
gold,  and  of  silver,  and  of  precious  ores,  which 
were  in  great  abundance  (pp.  71,  153,  186). 

We  have  abundant  evidence  as  to  the  fauna  of 
this  country  but  there  is  not  the  slightest  evi- 
dence for  believing  that  previous  to  the  coming 
of  the  Europeans  there  existed  here  any  of  our 
present  domestic  animals  or  even  others  at  all 
similar.  The  Book  of  Mormon  says : 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  we  did  find  upon  the 
land  of  promise,  as  we  journeyed  in  the  wilder- 
ness, that  there  were  beasts  in  the  forests  oft 
every  kind,  both  the  cow  and  the  ox,  and  the 
ass  and  the  horse,  and  the  goat  and  the  wild  goat, 
and  all  manner  of  wild  animals  which  were  for 
the  use  of  men  (pp.  47,  151,  295,  etc.). 

This  book  also  represents  that  there  was  a 
complicated  system  of  gold  and  silver  coinage 
among  its  people  (p.  265).  Greek  and  Roman 
coins  have  come  down  to  us  from  before  the 
time  of  Christ.  Various  articles  have  been  found 
in  the  ruins  of  this  continent  where  they  were 
left  before  the  time  these  Jews  are  alleged  to  have 
come,  but  there  is  no  evidence  that  a  gold  or 
silver  coin  was  ever  used  here  before  the  advent 
of  the  Europeans. 

We  have  devoted  most  of  this  chapter  to  the 


68     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

Book  of  Mormon  for  the  prophet  himself  said, 
"  It  is  the  keystone  of  our  religion."  It  is  upon 
the  credibility  of  this  book  that  the  Mormon  re- 
ligion stands  or  falls.  The  evidence  that  has 
been  given  in  the  preceding  pages  by  no  means 
exhausts  the  material  of  a  similar  kind  that  may 
be  found  in  it. 

The  Book  of  Doctrine  and  Covenants  is  com- 
posed of  seven  lectures  on  faith  and  one  hundred 
and  thirty-six  alleged  revelations  from  God  said 
to  have  been  received  by  Smith,  Cowdry,  Rig- 
don,  Partridge  and  John  Whitmer.  It  must  be 
said,  however,  that  most  of  the  revelations  were 
given  through  Joseph  to  some  one  or  else  given 
to  that  other  person  in  the  presence  of  Joseph. 
It  would  seem  that  the  Lord  could  not  be  trusted 
to  give  a  revelation  to  any  one  unless  Joseph  was 
around  to  see  that  everything  was  all  right. 
Space  is  lacking  to  mention  here  the  discrepan- 
cies between  the  different  chapters  of  the  book 
and  between  this  book  and  other  sacred  writings 
of  the  Mormons.  An  application  of  the  follow- 
ing statement,  given  in  reference  to  one  specific 
case,  may  explain  them  all : 

"  These  discrepancies  can  best  be  accounted  for 
by  the  explanation  of  different  accounts  of  an 
event  that  never  happened,  and  told  to  conceal 
one  that  did  happen." 

The  Pearl  of  Great  Price  is  composed  of  the 
books  of  Moses  and  Abraham,  an  inspired  (?) 


The  Sacred  Books  of  the  Mormons     69 

translation  of  a  small  part  of  the  book  of  Mat- 
thew, a  portion  of  Smith's  autobiography  and  the 
Articles  of  Faith  of  the  Mormon  Church.  A 
large  part  of  the  Book  of  Moses  and  of  the  Book 
of  Abraham  is  made  up  of  direct  quotations  from 
the  King  James  Version  of  the  Bible.  All  told 
there  are  only  one  hundred  and  three  small  pages 
of  coarse  print. 


Ill 

ORGANIZATION  AND   METHODS   OF 
THE  MORMON  CHURCH 


DANITE   OATH 

« In  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  I  do  solemnly 
obligate  myself  ever  to  regard  the  Prophet  and  the  First  Presi- 
dency of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter- Day  Saints  as  the 
supreme  head  of  the  church  on  earth,  and  to  obey  them  in  all 
things,  the  same  as  the  supreme  God ;  that  I  will  stand  by  my 
brethren  in  difficulty  and  in  danger,  and  will  uphold  the  Presi- 
dency, right  or  wrong,  and  that  I  will  ever  conceal,  and  never 
reveal,  the  secret  purposes  of  this  Society,  called  Daughters  of 
Zion  (first  name  given  to  Danites).  Should  I  ever  do  the 
same,  I  hold  my  life  as  forfeiture,  in  a  caldron  of  boiling  oil" 
quoted  by  Linn,  p.  192). 


Ill 

ORGANIZATION  AND  METHODS  OF  THE 
MORMON  CHURCH 

WE  can  do  no  better  here  than  to  give 
a    condensation    from  the  pamphlet 
"  Mormonism ;  Its  Origin  and   His- 
tory," by  B.  H.  Roberts  : 

The  Saints  believe  in  the  same  organization 
that  existed  in  the  primitive  church  of  Christ 
.  .  .  but  in  consequence  of  the  early  Chris- 
tian annals,  .  .  .  the  description  exists  only 
in  the  merest  outline.  ...  I  propose  to  de- 
scribe the  church  or  organization  as  it  has  been 
developed  not  only  through  the  knowledge  that 
may  be  obtained  through  the  New  Testament 
Scriptures  .  .  .  but  by  the  revelations  which 
God  gave  through  the  Prophet  Joseph  Smith. 

Priesthood  is  the  power  which  God  delegates 
to  man,  by  which  man  is  authorized  to  act  in  the 
name  or  authority  of  God  .  .  .  and  so  long 
as  he  performs  his  official  acts  in  accordance  with 
the  laws  of  the  priesthood  .  .  .  it  is  as  valid 
as  if  it  were  done  by  the  Lord  Himself. 

First  there  is  a  division  into  what  are  called, 
respectively,  the  Melchizedek  and  the  Aaronic 
priesthoods.  The  former  is  the  greater,  and  de- 
voted more  especially  to  spiritual  things  ;  while 
the  latter  has  most  to  do  with  temporal  concerns. 

The  officers  of  the  Melchizedek  Priesthood  are 
Apostles,  Patriarchs,  High  Priests,  Seventies, 

73 


74     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

Elders.     The  officers  of  the  Aaronic  Priesthood 
are  Bishops,  Priests,  Teachers,  Deacons. 

Another  division  may  be  recognized  based  on 
work,  viz.,  the  Foreign  Ministry  and  the  Home 
Ministry.  The  Foreign  Ministry  consists  of  the 
Twelve  Apostles  and  the  Quorums  of  Seventy. 
The  Home  Ministry  consists  of  the  High  Priests, 
the  Elders,  and  all  the  officers  of  the  Lesser 
Priesthood. 

First  Presidency 

Three  presiding  High  Priests,  chosen  by  the 
body,  appointed  and  ordained  to  that  office, 
.  .  .  form  the  Quorum  of  the  Presidency  of 
the  Church.  The  Presidency  presides  over  all 
the  departments  of  the  church  universal,  and  in 
it  adheres  all  power,  ecclesiastical,  legislative,  ju- 
dicial and  administrative.  .  .  . 

The  Twelve  Apostles  labour  under  the  imme- 
diate direction  of  the  First  Presidency.  They 
are  special  witnesses  in  the  name  of  Christ  in  all 
the  world.  The  work  of  the  Foreign  Ministry 
more  especially  comes  under  their  immediate 
jurisdiction. 

The  Seventies 

Their  special  calling  is  like  that  of  the  Apos  - 
ties — to  be  witnesses  of  Christ  in  all  the  world. 
.  .  .  They  labour  under  the  Apostles  and 
while  others  may  be,  these  are  expected  to  fill 
the  callings  for  preaching  abroad  instead  of 
others. 

Presiding  Bishopric 

The  fourth  general  council  is  the  Presidency 
over  the  Aaronic  Priesthood,  the  Presiding  Bish- 
opric which  has  special  jurisdiction  over  the 


Organization  and  Methods  75 


temporal  affairs  of  the  church,  the  collection 
of  tithes,  supervision  of  its  property,  distribution 
of  charities,  and  so  forth. 

Standing  Ministry 

High  Priests  with  the  Lesser  Priesthood  con- 
stitute the  standing  Ministry  of  the  church. 
From  the  ranks  of  the  High  Priests  are  chosen 
the  Patriarchs,  Presidents  of  Stakes,  High  Coun- 
sellors, Bishops  and  their  Counsellors. 

A  Stake 

This  is  a  territorial  division  of  the  church, 
embracing  several  wards  and  branches.  It  is 
presided  over  by  a  President  who  is  a  High 
Priest,  with  two  other  High  Priests  as  Coun- 
sellors .  .  .  subject  to  the  general  authorities 
of  the  church. 

In  addition"  to  the  foregoing  there  are  other 
ranks  of  authority,  such  as  High  Councils  in 
each  Stake ;  Patriarchs  "  to  designate  the  lineage 
of  the  Saints,"  High  Priests,  Bishops,  Elders, 
Teachers.  In  fact  nearly  every  male  member 
of  the  Mormon  Church  in  good  standing  holds 
some  ecclesiastical  office.  There  are  various 
auxiliary  organizations,  such  as  Relief  Societies, 
Sabbath-schools,  Young  Men's  and  Young 
Women's  Mutual  Improvement  Associations, 
Religion  Classes  and  so  forth  whose  purpose 
will  be  readily  understood  without  description. 
In  addition  there  is  an  elaborate  church  educa- 
tional system  with  a  number  of  academies  in 


76     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

various  parts  of  the  state,  culminating  in  the 
Deseret  University  in  Salt  Lake  City.  In  these 
purely  educational  institutions,  instruction  is 
given  in  church  history,  the  Book  of  Mormon 
and  other  sacred  books,  the  lives  of  the  saints 
(living  and  dead)  and  all  other  subjects  that  will 
keep  alive  their  interest  in  the  church.  These 
studies  are  compulsory  for  all  Mormon  youth 
who  attend  these  schools. 

Religion  Classes  are  organized  in  the  public 
schools  wherever  they  have  Mormon  teachers 
and  dare  to  do  it.  Professedly  these  classes  are 
held  after  regular  school  hours,  but  the  fact  is 
that  often  they  are  held  before  the  regular  time 
for  dismissal  and  those  wishing  to  leave  find 
themselves  made  conspicuous  and  uncomfortable. 
In  1904  charges  were  made  of  the  illegal  Re- 
ligion Classes  which  the  News,  edited  by  Apostle 
Penrose,  denied  ever  existed.  Finally  they  sent 
a  letter  to  the  wrong  man  as  follows : 

Office  of  the  Stake  Board  of  Religion  Class 

Work,  Brigham  City,  Utah,  Sept.  //,  /po^. 
DEAR  BROTHER: 

As  the  Stake  Board  of  Religion  Class 
Work  we  earnestly  request  that  you  take  hold 
of  the  work  in  your  school  that  you  have  been 
engaged  to  teach.  As  you  know,  dear  brother, 
the  call  to  the  work  comes  from  the  Presidency 
of  the  church  and  the  call  comes  to  every  day- 
school  teacher  of  our  common  faith,  for  the 


Organization  and  Methods  77 


reason  that  by  education  they  are  the  most  em- 
inently fitted  to  take  hold  of  this  work.  .  .  . 
Your  special  calling  is  to  sow  faith  of  the 
gospel  seed  in  the  hearts  of  your  pupils.  .  .  . 
Praying  the  Lord  to  bless  your  efforts,  we  re- 
main. Your  brethren, 

FRED  J.  HOLTON, 
(Signed)       NELS  MADSEN, 

GEO.  W.  WATKINS, 
Stake  Presidency  of  Religion  Class  Work. 

After  this  was  published  and  their  duplicity 
again  exposed  the  authorities  gave  orders  for  the 
discontinuance  of  the  Religion  Classes  which 
they  had  asserted  never  existed. 

In  1902  Mr.  Roberts  gave  the  numbers  in  the 
various  offices  of  the  church  as  follows  : 

First  Presidency 3 

Apostles 12 

Patriarchs 200 

High  Priests    \ 6,800 

Seventies 9»73° 

Elders 20,000 


Total  of  the  Melchizedek  Priesthood     36,745 

There  are  about  25,700  in  the  Lesser  Priest- 
hood and  they  claim  a  total  membership  in  the 
auxiliary  organizations  of  264,000. 

The  Mormons  are,  above  all,  propagandists. 
This  idea  is  inculcated  into  them  from  childhood. 
It  is  not  unusual,  for  example,  for  a  motorman 


78     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

on  the  trolley  cars  in  Salt  Lake  City  to  "  bear 
his  testimony/'  that  is,  talk  Mormonism  to  the 
unknown  passenger  standing  beside  him.  A 
strange  family  moving  into  any  Mormon  com- 
munity  is  soon  visited  by  some  of  the  priest- 
hood. 

They  usually  make  these  visits  by  twos  and 
insist  upon  gaining  an  entrance  into  the  house 
and  talking  with  inmates  even  though  it  is  not 
a  Mormon  family. 

When  the  missionary  goes  away  from  home 
he  must  make  his  way  as  he  goes  unless  he  has 
money  to  take  with  him.  This  does  not  mean 
that  they  earn  their  way.  They  " sponge"  their 
way  off  the  Gentiles  wherever  they  can  gain  en- 
trance to  a  home.  Often  they  seek  out  some 
widow  and  if  they  gain  a  lodgment  it  is  some- 
times hard  to  get  rid  of  them.  In  this  way  they 
have  established  missions  in  Great  Britain,  Ger- 
many, Holland,  Belgium,  Denmark,  Sweden, 
Norway,  Finland,  Russia,  Austria,  Iceland,  Italy, 
Switzerland,  Hindustan,  Malta,  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  Mexico,  Canada,  Australia,  New  Zealand, 
Turkey,  Palestine,  Japan,  Central  America,  the 
Island  of  Jersey,  and  the  Samoan,  Hawaiian  and 
Friendly  Islands.  It  must  be  said  that  they  have 
had  little  success  in  Catholic  or  pagan  countries 
except  as  they  have  proselyted  from  the  converts 
of  evangelical  missionaries. 

The   elders   out   on   a   mission  in  the  United 


? 


Organization  and  Methods  79 

States  l  usually  introduce  themselves  as  ministers 
f  Christ.  They  will  not  admit  that  they  are 
Mormons  until  forced  to  do  so.  They  present 
some  harmless  (?)  bit  of  literature  which  empha- 
sizes, as  they  do  in  their  talk,  the  essentials  of 
Christianity  upon  which  all  agree.  At  first  they 
give  their  victims  the  "  milk  of  the  word  "  and 
do  not  feed  them  upon  the  "  meat  of  the  Gospel  " 
intil  they  are  thought  to  be  able  to  bear  it. 
iten  these  elders  seek  out  deliberately  mem- 
:rs  of  churches  who  are  dissatisfied  with  their 
church  relationships.  They  flatter  them  and  tell 
them  that  they,  the  really  spiritual  people,  could 
not  well  be  satisfied  with  a  Gospel  which  at  best 
incomplete. 

There  are  certain  classes  in  every  community 
ho  are  easy  subjects  for  the  Mormon  elders  if 
.ey  can  secure  the  right  approach  to  them.  As 
rule  they  are  the  uneducated,  or  the  foreigners 
in  our  city  slums.  To  this  latter  class  the  appeal 
made  of  the  communistic  paradise  that  the 
ormons  have  in  Utah  and  how  they  will  prosper 
f  they  but  accept  the  gospel  and  move  there. 
Now  and  then  a  man  of  some  education  is  won 
into  their  fellowship  but  such  are  usually  those 
who  are  given  to  beliefs  that  most  people  call 
lt  queer."  People  who  are  superstitious,  who  be- 

1  For  1909  Mormon  missionaries  report  one  million  meetings, 
hree  and  one-half  million  families  visited,  and  eleven  million 
tracts  distributed. 


80     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

lieve  in  ghosts,  dreams,  visions,  and  spirits,  are 
among  those  who  are  easy  dupes  to  the  Mormon 
elders'. 

A  fact  not  to  be  lost  sight  of  in  this  connec- 
tion is  that  most  of  the  converts  to  Mormonism 
have  been  at  some  time  members  of  evangelical 
churches.  Whether  at  home  or  abroad  the 
Mormon  missionaries  seem  to  have  no  message 
for  those  whom  we  commonly  call  the  uncon- 
verted. The  elders  are  essentially,  systematically, 
deliberately  and  persistently  proselyters.  A  part 
of  their  earnestness  is  accounted  for  by  the  fact 
that  when  they  have  served  on  their  mission  fruit- 
fully for  two  years  the  church  pays  their  expenses 
home.  If  they  desire  ecclesiastical  preferment, 
they  know  that  much  depends  upon  these  first 
two  years,  for  after  that,  if  they  give  their  time  to 
the  work,  the  church  will  support  them. 

To  the  classes  mentioned  the  elders  have  a 
message  which  appeals  when  the  listener  is  not 
able  to  differentiate  between  the  false  and  the 
true.  They  claim  to  have  had  restored  to  them 
simple,  primitive  Christianity  with  all  of  its  gifts 
of  tongues,  healings,  miracles  of  all  kinds,  and 
the  Apostolic  Priesthood  with  all  its  powers. 
They  allege  that  they  have  established  a  paradisi- 
acal theocracy  where  sin  never  enters.  At  the 
proper  time  the  elders  tell  wondrous  stories  of 
their  own  conversions,  coupled  with  miraculous 
visions  and  spiritual  demonstrations,  and  of  their 


Organization  and  Methods  81 

own  sufferings  and  persecutions  in  the  work  of 
their  mission.  They  claim  more  Bible  than  we 
have,  more  complete  and  continuous  revelations 
that  are  "  right  up  to  the  minute."  They  pro- 
vide a  way  such  as  no  other  system  claims  by 
which  dead  relatives  may  be  saved  if  the  living 
will  be  baptized  for  them.  Then  there  is  the  ap- 
peal to  the  sensual  that  is  made  by  polygamy ; 
and  to  the  covetous,  for  all  the  Saints  are  repre- 
sented as  being  prosperous  in  this  world's  goods. 
In  addition  there  is  always  held  up  the  prospect 
of  ecclesiastical  advancement.  Somehow  there 
is  an  inseparable  connection  between  high  office 
in  the  church  and  financial  prosperity — and  there 
is  a  reason.  Bishops  are  usually  chosen  from 
among  the  wealthy  or  they  soon  become  so. 
While  the  women  shudder  at  polygamy  and  some 
of  the  other  teachings,  there  is  something  attract- 
ive to  offer  them.  They  are  taught  the  eternity 
of  the  marriage  relation  and  that  if  the  wife  is 
faithful  here  she  will  be  the  wife  of  a  god  in  the 
hereafter  with  all  the  glories  attaching  to  such  a 
state. 

The  Mormons  are  great  colonizers.  They  do 
not  allow  their  people  to  scatter  broadcast — a 
family  here  and  another  there.  The  church  buys 
a  promising  tract  of  land  where  it  wants  a  colony 
and  then  sells  to  Mormons  only.  It  is  prac- 
tically impossible  for  a  Gentile  to  buy  out  a 
Mormon  in  a"  place  where  the  church  desires  to 


82     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

retain  its  hold.  If  they  decide  to  make  a  political 
impression  upon  a  county  or  state  and  volunteers 
do  not  come  fast  enough,  the  authorities  will 
send  out  a  requisition  for  a  certain  number  of 
families  from  certain  wards  and  the  bishops  must 
see  to  it  that  their  quotas  are  filled.  As  a  last 
resort  sufficient  families  are  "  called  "  to  colonize 
just  as  they  are  "  called"  to  "  go  on  a  mission." 
In  this  way  flourishing  colonies  have  been  es- 
tablished in  Idaho,  Wyoming,  Nevada,  Arizona, 
New  Mexico,  California,  Oregon,  Colorado,  Old 
Mexico  and  Alberta. 

If  necessary  to  accomplish  their  purpose  the 
church  will  advance  money  to  the  convert  from 
foreign  parts  or  to  the  colonist  going  out  from 
Utah  in  order  that  he  may  get  started  in  business 
but  in  such  cases  it  never  forgets  to  take  a  mort- 
gage for  the  debt  at  a  big  rate  of  interest.  This 
also  enables  the  authorities  to  have  a  stronger 
hold  upon  the  masses.  So  thoroughly  have  they 
colonized  the  states  from  the  Rocky  Mountains 
west  that  one  authority  (Cosmopolitan,  April, 
1911)  gives  the  Mormon  population  of  those 
states  as  follows  :  California,  40,000 ;  Washing- 
ton, 61,000;  Colorado,  83.000;  Oregon,  58,000; 
Montana,  87,000;  Utah,  212,000;  New  Mexico, 
24,000;  Idaho,  81,000;  Arizona,  39,000;  Wyom- 
ing, 46,000;  and  Nevada,  22,000.  These  figures 
may  be  large  from  the  religious  point  of  view  but 
they  are  perhaps  not  too  large  from  the  political 


Organization  and  Methods  83 

point  of  view ;  for  thousands  who  have  given  up 
Mormonism  as  a  personal  system  of  salvation, 
nevertheless,  are  Mormons  when  it  comes  to 
politics.  The  government  "  Report  on  Religious 
Bodies,"  published  in  1909,  gives  the  information 
that  eighty-seven  per  cent,  of  all  the  members  of 
religious  organizations  (not  population)  in  Utah 
are  members  of  the  Mormon  Church.  In  Idaho 
the  percentage  is  forty-three,  in  Wyoming 
twenty-one,  in  Arizona  thirteen,  in  Nevada 
seven,  with  smaller  percentages  in  the  rest  of 
these  states.  These  religious  figures  would  seem 
to  more  than  justify  the  figures  on  population 
given  above.  At  any  rate  in  the  last  named  states 
they  hold  the  balance  of  power,  at  least  in  all 
things  vital  to  themselves.  A  very  significant 
thing  in  this  connection  is  that*\in  the  Smoot  con- 
test only  two  senators  from  that  region  voted 
against  the  apostle.  One  of  those  was  a  Dem- 
ocrat and  he  lost  his  seat  at  the  next  election  and 
turned  the  state  into  the  Republican  column, 
where  it  has  been  ever  since. *  Because  of  their 
numbers,  organization,  solidarity,  fanaticism  and 
unpatriotic  political  intentions,  they  constitute 
the  gravest  menace  to  our  American  and  Chris- 
tian institutions. 

In  every  community  where  Mormons  live  they 
exert  a  political  influence  out  of  all  proportion  to 
their  numbers.  In  all  of  these  Western  states  the 
non-Mormon  political  leaders  hate  the  Mormons 


84     Morrnonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

and  their  dominating  influence,  but  they  cater  to 
them  for  their  own  selfish  interests  and  party 
victory.  In  the  state  politics  in  Idaho  they  are 
as  thoroughly  dominant  as  in  Utah.  One  in- 
stance will  show  why  the  Gentiles  in  Idaho  who 
have  any  self-respect  left  do  not  like  Mormon 
political  activity.  A  few  years  ago  this  situation 
existed  in  Bear  Lake  County,  Idaho;  William 
Budge  was  a  high  Mormon  official  and  was  living 
openly  with  three  women  as  his  wives.  The 
main  officers  of  that  county  were : 

District  Judge,  Alfred  Budge,  son  of  William 
Budge. 

Court  Stenographer,  Ella  Hoge,  sister-in-law 
of  the  judge. 

County  Attorney,  J.  R.  S.  Budge,  son  of  Will- 
iam. 

Chairman  County  Commissioners,  J.  R.  Shep- 
herd, son-in-law  of  William. 

County  Treasurer,  E.  T.  Shepherd,  brother  of 
above. 

Auditor  and  Recorder,  J.  E.  Hart,  son  of 
counsellor  to  William. 

Duputy  Recorder,  wife  of  Hart. 

Postmaster  at  Paris,  Idaho,  Lillis  Budge, 
daughter  of  William. 

Superintendent  Government  Assay  office,  H. 
S.  Wooley,  son-in-law  of  William. 

State  Senator,  W.  L.  Rich,  counsellor  to  Will- 
iam. 

The  Sheriff  and  Probate  Judge  were  Mormons 
and  every  postmaster  in  the  county  was  also  a 
Mormon. 


Organization  and  Methods  85 

In  other  words  every  political  office  in  that 
county  but  two  was  filled  by  members  of  the 
domestic  or  ecclesiastical  family  of  that  one  man, 
William  Budge.  There  is  a  virtual  union  of 
church  and  state  in  Idaho  as  well  as  in  Utah. 

Many  times  when  people  come  from  afar  to 
Utah  with  great  expectations  they  are  sadly  en- 
lightened before  they  have  been  there  long. 
While  some  who  have  the  money  and  courage 
abandon  Mormonism  almost  immediately  only  a 
few  of  these  converts  have  the  requisites  for 
freedom,  so  they  suffer  and  endure  as  well  as  they 
can.  Free  Americans  sometimes  wonder  why 
these  old-world  peasants  submit  to  some  of  the 
grinding  hardships  imposed  upon  them  by  the 
Mormons,  but  bad  as  we  might  consider  their 
lot,  they  are  better  off  than  they  ever  were  in 
their  native  lands.  At  least  they  have  a  fair 
living  and  will  have  as  long  as  they  are  obedient 
to  their  superiors,  although  only  the  favoured  few, 
who  cannot  be  kept  down,  or  who  can  be  used 
by  the  hierarchy,  are  allowed  to  accumulate  much 
of  a  surplus. 

Just  after  the  General  Conference  of  the  Mor- 
mon Church  in  April,  1903,  the  Salt  Lake  Tribune 
published  the  following : 

The  authorities  of  the  Mormon  Church  have 
ordered  George  H.  Crosby  to  move  to  Arizona 
and  locate  in  St.  Johns  for  the  practice  of  law. 


86     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

He  will  close  his  business  in  Utah  as  quickly  as 
possible  and  migrate  with  his  family  to  his  South- 
ern home.  Mr.  Crosby  was  Committee  Clerk 
and  Minute  Clerk  for  the  last  state  Senate,  and 
his  friends  are  scattered  all  over  Utah. 

Of  course,  the  News,  the  official  Mormon 
paper,  denied  that  such  action  had  been  taken  by 
the  authorities,  but  it  was  guilelessly  admitted  by 
Crosby  before  he  realized  the  bearing  of  his  ad- 
mission. The  reason  Crosby  was  "  called  "  to 
Arizona  was  that  there  was  no  Mormon  lawyer 
in  that  county,  and  he  was  offered  the  county 
attorney's  office  as  soon  as  he  gained  his  resi- 
dence. This  also  was  denied,  but  he  went  to 
Arizona  and  at  the  first  election  after  gaining 
his  residence  he  was  made  county  attorney  as 
promised.  This  illustrates  how  they  go  after 
what  they  want — and  get  it. 

From  the  beginning  Mormon  leaders  have 
insisted  upon  dictating  to  their  people  in  the 
minutest  affairs  of  life.  (See  Linn,  p.  256.)  This 
was  true  at  Kirtland,  Far  West  and  even  more  so 
at  Nauvoo  and  Salt  Lake  City.  Smith  in  his 
autobiography  records  saying  on  one  occasion : 
"  I  remarked  that  the  brethren  who  came  here 
[Nauvoo]  having  money,  and  purchased  without 
the  church  and  without  counsel,  must  be  cut  off." 
The  Nauvoo  Neighbour  of  December  27,  1843, 
had  an  official  church  notice  in  it  which  said : 
"  Let  all  brethren  consult  President  Joseph 


Organization  and  Methods  87 

Smith  .  .  .  and  purchase  their  land  from  him 
.  .  and  they  will  be  glad  they  did." 
At  Salt  Lake  City,  Young  did  not  want  the 
mines  developed  and  he  told  the  people  publicly 
that  if  they  went  to  the  mountains  and  secured 
pouches  full  of  gold  there  would  be  no  gold  in 
those  pouches  when  they  got  back  to  the  city 
(Linn,  p.  434).  He  well  knew  that  if  gold  were 
produced  in  paying  quantities  nothing  could  keep 
out  a  great  influx  of  Gentiles.  On  another  oc- 
casion he  said : 

I  say  rather  than  that  apostates  should  flour- 
ish here  I  will  unsheath  my  bowie  knife  and 
conquer  or  die.  Now,  you  nasty  apostates,  clear 
out,  or  judgment  will  be  put  to  the  line  and 
righteousness  to  the  plummet  (JD,  I,  82). 

Tullidge  in  his  "  History  of  Salt  Lake  "  says 
(pp.  246-247) :  "  To  become  a  merchant  was  to 
antagonize  the  church  and  her  policies,  so  that  it 
was  almost  illegitimate  for  Mormon  men  of  enter- 
prising character  to  enter  mercantile  pursuits." 

Young's  city  police  spied  on  the  Mormons 
who  traded  at  a  Gentile  store  and  they  were 
treated  accordingly.  Those  who  had  the  temer- 
ity to  question  Young's  conduct  were  at  least  cut 
off  from  the  church — many  were  cut  off  from  the 
earth — and  he  promised  in  addition  that  those 
who  did  not  "  get  on  the  Lord's  side  "  would  be 
hewn  down  with  the  broadsword  (JD,  III,  266). 


88     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

To-day  the  president  of  the  church,  Joseph  F. 
Smith,  is  president  also  of  many  of  the  largest 
business  corporations  in  Utah  and  a  director  in 
more  interests  than  he  can  remember  offhand. 
Among  them  are  the  following : 

Zion's  Commercial  Mercantile  Institution. 
State  Bank  of  Utah. 

Zion's  Savings  Bank  and  Trust  Company. 
The    Utah-Idaho    Sugar    Company   (part   of 
Sugar  Trust). 

Salt  Lake  Knitting  Company. 
Consolidated  Wagon  and  Machine  Company. 
Home  Fire  Insurance  Company. 
Beneficial  Life  Insurance  Company. 
Inland  Crystal  Salt  Company. 
Deseret  News  Publishing  Company. 

His  successor  will  be  president  of  these  same 
concerns  by  virtue  of  his  office.  Woe  be  to  any 
one  who  attempts  to  enter  into  competition  with 
any  of  these  business  interests  of  the  Lord  !  The 
very  tithes  that  a  member  pays  into  the  church 
may  be  used  by  one  of  these  church  corporations 
to  crush  out  the  business  of  the  very  man  who 
contributed  them. 

Not  only  do  the  Mormons  make  leagues  with 
political  parties  but  the  business  interests  of  the 
aforementioned  concerns,  as  well  as  others,  are 

xThe  anti- Mormon  public  is  beginning  to  ask  if  the  Mormon 
Church  is  not  a  gigantic  "  Trust,"  and  so  in  violation  of  the 
Sherman  law. 


Organization  and  Methods  89 

so  great  that  they  have  the  backing  of  some  of 
the  most  gigantic  commercial  organizations  in  the 
country. 

They  are  not  above  petty  persecutions  of  one 
who  has  offended  them  but  whose  business  is 
really  of  small  value.  One  man  who  became  a 
Mormon  in  England  moved  to  this  country,  but 
after  living  in  Utah  some  years  discovered  that 
Mormonism  was  not  all  he  had  hoped  for.  He 
abandoned  the  church  and  earned  a  living  as  a 
shoemaker.  He  had  a  fair  trade  until  summoned 
to  give  evidence  in  the  Smoot  case.  This  evi- 
dence was  damaging  to  the  Mormon  cause.  On 
his  return  from  Washington  he  found  that,  under 
instructions  from  the  church,  three  new  shoe 
shops  had  been  opened  close  to  his,  and  that  all 
the  Mormon  trade  was  transferred  to  them.  In 
one  of  the  smaller  cities  the  only  jeweler  en- 
joyed a  good  trade  until  he  apostatized  and 
joined  an  evangelical  church.  Immediately  a 
Mormon  young  man  was  "  called  "  to  go  East 
and  learn  the  jewelry  business  and  on  his  return 
was  set  up  in  business  by  the  church  authorities 
to  run  the  apostate  out. 

Much  is  said  of  the  cooperative  methods  of 
the  Mormons  when  in  fact  there  is  very  little  of 
anything  of  the  sort.  The  Zion  Commercial 
Mercantile  Institution  is  the  greatest  wholesale 
and  retail  concern  in  Utah.  It  is  not  cooperative 
in  any  sense  but  is  a  very  close  corporation  con* 


90     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

trolled  exclusively  by  the  church,  which  means  in 
reality  a  very  few  of  the  favoured  high  ecclesi- 
asts.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the  great  beet- 
sugar  factories.  All  of  the  employees  of  the 
church  corporations  have  their  tithing  deducted 
from  their  wages  on  pay  day.  Worse  than  that, 
although  a  mere  pittance  of  the  public  poor 
funds  is  distributed  by  Mormon  officials,  the 
Mormon  bishop  collects  a  tenth  of  this  for  his 
church. 

The  church  business  houses  do  not  treat  their 
own  people  with  as  much  consideration  as  they 
do  the  Gentiles.  For  example,  the  Consolidated 
Wagon  and  Machine  Company,  having  branches 
all  over  Utah,  will  sell  the  average  Gentile  a 
machine  for  less  and  upon  easier  terms  than  it 
will  to  one  of  their  own  Mormons.  This  must 
be  either  because  the  Mormons  think  that  the 
Gentiles  are  more  trustworthy,  or  that  the  Mor- 
mons are  obliged  to  trade  with  them  anyhow 
and  they  can,  therefore,  charge  them  what  they 
wish.  The  first  reason  is  hardly  creditable  to 
the  Mormon  people  and  the  second  is  surely  not 
to  the  church. 

The  Mormon  Church  has  always  attempted  to 
dictate  to  the  courts  or  to  usurp  their  functions. 


Courts  of  civil  jurisdiction  are  instituted  and 
regularly  carried  on,  trying  all  kinds  of  property 
questions,  including  titles  to  lands,  with  appellate 


Organization  and  Methods  91 

courts,  and  ending  with  the  First  Presidency  as 
the  court  of  last  resort.  The  defendant  must 
submit  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  court  under 
penalty  of  excommunication  and  ostracism,  and 
judgment  or  decrees  are  in  like  manner  enforced. 
In  the  Birdsall  case,  concerning  which  the  full 
official  record  is  contained  in  the  testimony  in 
this  case,  involving  title  to  land,  the  accused  was 
involuntarily  compelled  to  appear  and  defend 
(Smoot  Case,  Arguments,  46). 


In  the  case  above  mentioned  one  Leavitt 
claimed  that  Isaac  Birdsall  had  alienated  in  some 
way  to  him  a  portion  of  his  government  home- 
stead, but  that  he,  Birdsall,  had  "  relinquished  " 
it  to  his  daughter  Cora,  who  "  proved  up "  on 
said  claim  in  1896  and  refused  to  deliver  to  him 
the  property  claimed  by  Leavitt.  Now,  regard- 
less of  whatever  moral  right  Leavitt  may  or  may 
not  have  had,  every  one  knows  that  it  is  against 
the  federal  law  for  a  man  to  sell,  mortgage  or 
otherwise  place  any  lien  against  any  homestead 
before  he  has  proved  upon  it.  Moreover  any 
such  lien  is  illegal,  so  that  Leavitt  could  have  no 
possible  standing  in  law,  yet  the  bishop's  court 
decided  in  his  favour.  Then  Cora  asked  per- 
mission of  the  First  Presidency  to  take  the  case 
into  the  civil  courts  and  was  told  that  she  must 
"  follow  the  order  provided  of  the  Lord  to 
govern "  in  her  case.  The  decision  of  the 
bishop's  court  was  affirmed  by  all  the  upper 


92     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

Mormon  ecclesiastical  courts  but  Cora  still  re- 
fused to  deed  the  property  over  to  Leavitt.  She 
was  then  excommunicated,  June  19,  1903.  This 
excommunication  so  terrified  her  that  she  became 
demented,  which  the  priesthood  said  was  a  visita- 
tion from  heaven  for  her  sin  "  in  failing  to  abide 
by  the  decision  of  the  mouthpiece  of  God." 

The  Mormons  are  often  lauded  as  the  finest 
farmers  in  the  world.  If  one  desires  to  see  Mor- 
monism as  it  really  is,  religiously,  ecclesiastic- 
ally, industrially,  agriculturally  or,  in  fact,  from 
any  point  of  view,  he  must  leave  the  paths  that 
are  beaten  by  the  tourist  and  globe-trotter  and 
get  into  the  regions  where  little  of  outside  or 
Gentile  influence  has  percolated.  There  he  will 
see  sweet  clover,  sunflowers  and  noxious  weeds 
growing  as  high  as  his  buggy  top  in  the  roads,  in 
the  orchards  and  in  the  midst  of  other  growing 
crops.  Many  a  community,  long  settled  by  the 
Mormons  and  cultivated  in  an  indifferent  way, 
has  had  to  wait  for  its  real  development  for  the 
coming  of  the  Gentile  with  his  greater  thrift,  in- 
genuity and  enterprise. 

A  high  Mormon  ecclesiastic,  prominently  con- 
nected with  the  Mormon  beet-sugar  industry, 
said  recently  that  the  average  Gentile  would 
raise  from  two  to  four  more  tons  of  beets  per 
acre  than  the  average  Mormon.  He  further 
stated  that  because  of  better  care  given  them  and 
intelligence  used  in  growing  them  a  Gentile's 


Organization  and  Methods  93 

beets  would  have  from  ten  to  twelve  per  cent, 
more  sugar  than  those  of  his  Mormon  neighbour. 
Utah  is  a  state  of  magnificent  natural  resources 
and  in  view  of  this  it  is  a  significant  fact  that 
during  the  last  decade  it  had  the  lowest  percentage 
of  increase  in  population  of  any  of  the  states 
from  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the  Pacific  Coast. 
The  others  averaged  an  increase  of  more  than 
sixty-seven  per  cent.,  while  poor  old  Utah  brought 
up  the  rear  with  less  than  thirty- five  per  cent. 
There  is  a  reason  ! 

/  Formerly  the  Mormon  Tabernacle  was  open 
at  all  times  to  any  one  who  wished  to  enter. 
To-day  the  building  is  kept  locked  and  the 
visitor  is  obliged  to  go  to  the  Bureau  of  (mis) 
Information  on  the  temple  grounds.  The  pur- 
pose of  this  is  to  oblige  every  one  to  come  in 
contact  with  the  Mormon  "  missionaries "  who 
are  kept  there  for  that  purpose.  The  visitor  is 
engaged  in  conversation  as  long  as  possible  on 
Mormonism  and  its  doctrines,  his  pockets  are 
filled  with  all  the  literature  he  will  carry  and 
finally,  after  he  has  registered  his  name  and 
address,  he  ,is  given  a  guide  who  shows  him 
through  the  tabernacle.  The  guide  is  all  the 
time  talking  up  the  doctrines  of  his  church.  If 
the  visitor  has  given  his  correct  name  and  address, 
Mormon  literature  will  be  sent  him  for  months 
after  he  has  gone  away. 
I  The  most  attractive  Mormon  young  women 


94     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

are  sent  to  Eastern  universities  and  women's 
colleges,  at  the  expense  of  the  church,  to  "  bear 
testimony  "  to  the  Gentiles.  It  is  a  distinct  part 
of  their  mission  to  defend  Mormonism  and 
polygamy  and  to  soften  the  prejudices  against 
their  people.  These  girls  work  their  way  into 
sororities  and  use  such  organizations,  both  local 
and  national,  to  further  their  purposes.  ' 

In  recent  years  Mormon  women  have  sought 
entrance  to  all  the  women's  lodges  and  clubs  of 
Utah.  They  have  exerted  powerful  influence 
upon  these  bodies  and  have  done  much  to  pre- 
vent the  passage  of  any  resolutions  unfavourable 
to  themselves.  The  Mormon  headquarters  know, 
as  if  by  wireless,  all  that  takes  place  in  these 
organizations.  Mormon  women,  acting  upon 
committees  of  various  women's  societies,  have 
openly  refused  to  sanction  proposed  movements 
until  they  have  "  taken  counsel "  (received  orders) 
from  their  church  authorities. 

While  acting  as  representative  abroad  of  one 
of  our  most  powerful  national  women's  organiza- 
tions, Susan  Young  Gates,  daughter  of  Brigham 
Young,  defended  polygamy  in  scores  of  the 
most  famous  parlours  in  various  countries  of 
Europe. 

To  show  what  methods  the  church  employs 
even  to  this  day  we  will  give,  just  as  he  wrote  it 
for  the  author,  an  experience  of  one  whom  we 
will  call  Mr.  William  Sherman  Grant.  This 


Organization  and  Methods  95 

man's    real    name    would    be   known   all   over 
America  by  Christian  workers. 

I  had  an  engagement  in  Winnepeg,  Manitoba, 
November,  1907.  After  speaking  on  Sunday  a 
reporter  for  one  of  the  papers  called  for  an  in- 
terview on  Monday.  In  the  course  of  my  con- 
versation I  mentioned  that  I  purposed  while  in 
Calgary  to  go  down  into  Raymond  and  look  over 
the  Mormon  settlements  there.  I  wanted  to  find 
if  there  was  any  ground  for  Bishop  Whitney's 
prediction  that  Alberta  would  be  a  future  Mormon 
stronghold. 

Incidentally  I  mentioned  to  the  reporter  that 
the  Canadians  seemed  not  to  realize  the  danger 
that  was  threatening  them.  This,  of  course,  found 
place  in  the  published  interview. 

Not  less  than  half  a  dozen  times  while  travelling 
westward  I  was  accosted  by  persons  on  trains 
who  mentioned  my  intention  to  go  down  into 
Alberta.  On  two  occasions  hotel  clerks  referred 
to  it,  having  seen  my  name  on  the  register.  The 
first  incident,  however,  that  impressed  me  as 
irregular  was  when  I  registered  at  the  Yates 
Hotel  in  Calgary.  I  found  a  letter  asking  me  to 
call  up  a  certain  telephone  number  as  soon  as  I 
arrived.  I  did  so  and  the  man  simply  wanted  to 
know  when  I  arrived  and  when  I  was  leaving. 
On  investigation  I  found  that  the  man  was  a 
Mormon  bishop. 

When  I  registered  in  the  hotel  in  Vancouver 
I  was  accosted  by  a  stranger  who  asked  many 
impertinent  questions  about  my  trip.  He  also 
was  a  Mormon  bishop. 

In  Victoria  I   received  another  letter   asking 


96     Mormonisrn,  The  Islam  of  America 

me  to  call  up  a  certain  telephone  number  but  on 
finding  that  this  man  was  also  a  Mormon  bishop, 
/  did  not  call  him  up  but  went  to  four  other 
hotels  to  see  what  I  could  find,  and  found  the 
same  communication  at  each.  They  evidently 
wanted  to  keep  tab  on  me. 

My  plan  was  to  return  East  directly  from 
Victoria  but  I  was  obliged  to  change  my  course 
and  finally  returned  through  Salt  Lake  City. 
There  I  went  to  the  Mormon  Bureau  of  Informa- 
tion and  registered  as  William  Sherman,  rather 
than  as  W.  S.  Grant,  my  usual  signature.  A 
guide  showed  me  over  the  grounds.  I  drew  him 
on  and  found  that  he  knew  all  about  the  move- 
ments and  utterances  of  W.  S.  Grant  while  he  was 
in  western  Canada.  He  told  me  that  Mr.  Grant 
was  last  located  in  Victoria  and  was  headed  for 
Salt  Lake  City  and  would  probably  arrive  that 
very  day,  and  that  when  he  registered  at  their 
bureau  they  "  had  a  bunch  to  hand  out  to  him." 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  they  never  saw  Mr. 
Grant.  After  suffering  this  careful  and  systematic 
espionage  for  two  weeks,  I  was  glad  to  return 
home  without  further  dealings  with  my  Mormon 
friends.  It  made  me  realize  what  might  have 
happened  to  me  in  an  earlier  day. 

After  all  that  has  been  learned  about  the 
Mormons,  is  it  any  wonder  that  our  intelligent, 
patriotic,  Christian  citizens  object  to  the  Mormons 
and  their  methods?  That  all  who  think  un- 
favourably of  them  are  not  bigots  may  be  seen 
from  the  facts  which  follow : 

Stephen  A.  Douglas,  former  champion  of  the 


Organization  and  Methods  97 

Mormons  on  the  floor  of  the  United  States 
Senate,  in  a  speech  at  Springfield,  111.,  June  12, 
1856,  called  Mormonism  "this  loathsome,  dis- 
gusting ulcer  "  (New  York  Times ,  June  23,  1856). 

President  Buchanan,  in  his  message  to  Con- 
gress, December  8,  1857,  said: 

"  All  officers  of  the  United  States,  judicial  and 
executive,  with  the  single  exception  of  two  Indian 
agents,  have  found  it  necessary  for  their  own 
safety  to  withdraw  from  the  territory  [of  Utah]." 

In  1860  the  national  House  of  Representatives 
declared  that  the  Mormon  Church  "  had  such 
monstrous  powers  and  arrogant  assumptions  as 
are  at  war  with  the  genius  of  our  government.  " 

President  Hayes,  in  his  message  in  1880,  rec- 
ommended that  "  the  right  to  vote,  hold  office 
or  sit  on  juries  in  the  territory  of  Utah  be  con- 
fined to  those  who  neither  practice  nor  uphold 
polygamy. " 

President  Garfield  said  in  his  inaugural  ad- 
dress : 

"The  Mormon  Church  not  only  offends  the 
moral  sense  of  mankind  by  sanctioning  polygamy, 
but  prevents  the  administration  of  justice  through 
the  ordinary  instrumentalities  of  law.  Con- 
gress should  not  allow  any  ecclesiastical  or- 
ganization to  usurp  in  the  smallest  degree  the 
functions  and  powers  of  the  national  govern- 
ment." 

Presidents   Arthur   and  Cleveland  also  spoke 


98     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

most   scathingly   of  the  whole  Mormon  system 
and  recommended  drastic  legislation. 

A.  L.  Thomas,  Governor  of  Utah,  in  his  report 
for  1889,  page  25,  uses  this  language: 

That  instinctive  love  of  country,  which  is  the 
distinguishing  characteristic  of  the  American  peo- 
ple, does  not  find  a  responsive  sentiment  in  Utah. 
The  orthodox  Mormon,  in  every  political  and 
business  act,  puts  the  church  first,  country  after- 
wards. It  cannot  be  otherwise,  for  the  priest- 
hood claims  all  government  but  its  own  to  be 
illegal,  and  claims  a  separate  political  destiny  and 
ultimate  temporal  dominion,  and  by  divine  right. 

Verdicts  of  many  courts  from  the  highest  to 
the  lowest  might  be  quoted  to  show  the  spirit  of 
the  Mormons.  One  will  suffice,  for  it  is  part  of 
the  finding  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court 
as  given  by  Justice  Bradley  in  the  Escheat  case 
(i  36  U.S.  i): 

It  is  unnecessary  to  refer  to  the  past  history 
of  the  sect;  to  their  defiance  of  government 
authorities,  to  their  attempt  to  establish  an  in- 
dependent community,  to  their  efforts  to  drive 
from  the  territory  all  who  were  not  connected 
with  them  in  communion  and  sympathy.  The 
tale  is  one  of  patience  on  the  part  of  the  American 
government  and  people,  and  contempt  of  author- 
ity and  resistance  to  law  on  the  part  of  the 
Mormons.  .  .  .  Then  look  at  the  case  as 
the  finding  of  facts  presents  it;  we  have  before 
us — Congress  had  before  it — a  contumacious 


Organization  and  Methods  g$ 

organization  wielding  by  its  immense  resources 
an  immense  power  in  the  territory  of  Utah,  and 
employing  these  resources  and  that  power  in 
constantly  attempting  to  oppose,  thwart  and  sub- 
vert the  legislation  of  Congress  and  the  will  of 
the  government  of  the  United  States.  .  .  . 
Notwithstanding  the  stringent  laws  which  have 
been  passed  by  Congress;  notwithstanding  all 
efforts  made  to  suppress  this  barbarous  practice, 
the  sect,  or  community,  composing  the  Church 
of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-Day  Saints,  perseveres, 
in  defiance  of  law,  in  preaching,  upholding,  pro- 
moting and  defending  it. 

Though  this  opinion  was  handed  down  nearly 
twenty  years  ago  it  may  truly  be  said  to  rep- 
resent the  attitude  of  the  Mormon  of  to-day  in 
so  far  as  he  puts  his  belief  into  practice* 


IV 

MORMONISM   AS  A  RELIGION 


The  Mormons  claim  there  was  no  church  or  Gospel  or  pos- 
sibility of  salvation  for  any  one  on  earth  for  about  1,70x3  years 
prior  to  the  coming  of  Joseph  Smith. 

"  When  what  was  left  of  the  form  of  Christianity  became 
allied  to  the  softened  paganism  of  the  Roman  Empire  .  .  . 
the  Church  of  Christ  was  gone,  without  even  a  shadow  of  its 
presence  to  be  seen  upon  the  earth  .  .  „  the  living  and  the 
dead  were  left  in  the  spiritual  darkness  of  the  centuries  of 
apostasy  to  wait  until  the  dawning  of  the  great  and  last  dispen- 
sation."— Mormon  Doctrine,  28,  29. 

If  Brigham  Young  and  Joseph  Smith,  who  made  Mormon- 
ism,  did  not  know  what  Mormonism  was,  then  no  lesser  Mor- 
mon of  to-day  can  tell  us.  If  they  were  true  prophets  of  God, 
as  both  they  and  the  present  leaders  claim,  then  they  told  the 
truth  about  Mormonism.  ...  If  they  did  not  speak  truly, 
as  their  successors  imply  by  their  course,  then  they  were  not 
sent  of  God  but  of  Satan,  and  the  whole  system  falls  with  their 
claims.  What  was  true  of  Mormon  doctrine  then  must  be 
equally  true  now.  Mormonism  cannot  go  back  on  itself  at 
convenience,  but  must  stand  or  fall  by  the  utterances  of  its 
great  leaders." — John  D.  Nutting. 


IV 

MORMONISM  AS  A  RELIGION 

THE  Mormons  make  a  great  deal  of  their 
Articles  of  Faith,  and  well  they  may, 
for  these  articles  are  the  most  respec- 
table part  of  Mormonism.  They  are  printed  on 
leaflets  which  advertise  various  stores,  they  are 
pressed  into  the  hands  of  tourists  as  they  alight 
from  the  trains,  they  are  put  into  little  racks  in 
depots  and  hotels  hundreds  of  miles  from  Salt 
Lake  City,  they  are  printed  on  letter-heads  by 
Mormon  business  firms,  and  in  every  way  brought 
to  the  attention  of  the  public. 

The  Christian  worker  who  has  heard  about  the 
horrible  Mormon  doctrines  is  astounded  to  see 
how  closely  these  articles  accord  with  the  belief 
of  evangelical  Christianity.  They  do  if  the 
words  used  mean  the  same  to  Mormons  that 
they  do  to  others.  If  they  do,  and  if  these 
articles  contain  their  whole  belief,  there  is  com- 
paratively little  to  which  we  could  object ;  but 
the  fact  is  that  these  articles  give  a  stranger  ab- 
solutely no  idea  of  what  Mormons  really  believe. 

MORMON   ARTICLES  OF  FAITH 
Article  i.     We   believe  in  God,  the   Eternal 
Father,  and  His  Son,  Jesus   Christ,  and  in  the 
Holy  Ghost. 

103 


104    Mor monism,  The  Islam  of  America 

Article  2.  We  believe  that  men  will  be  pun- 
ished for  their  own  sins,  and  not  for  Adam's 
transgressions. 

Article  j.  We  believe  that  through  the  atone- 
ment of  Christ  all  mankind  may  be  saved,  by 
obedience  to  the  laws  and  ordinances  of  the  Gos- 
pel. 

Article  4.  We  believe  that  the  first  principles 
and  ordinances  of  the  Gospel  are :  First,  faith  in 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  second,  repentance ; 
third,  baptism  by  immersion  for  the  remission  of 
sins ;  fourth,  laying  on  of  hands  for  the  gift  of 
the  Holy  Ghost. 

Article  5.  We  believe  that  a  man  must  be 
called  of  God,  by  "  prophecy  and  by  the  laying 
on  of  hands,"  by  those  who  are  in  authority,  to 
preach  the  Gospel  and  administer  in  the  ordi- 
nances thereof. 

Article  6.  We  believe  in  the  same  organiza- 
tion that  existed  in  the  primitive  church,  namely, 
apostles,  prophets,  pastors,  teachers,  evangelists, 
etc. 

Article  7.  We  believe  in  the  gift  of  tongues, 
prophecy,  revelation,  visions,  healing,  interpreta- 
tion of  tongues,  etc. 

Article  8.  We  believe  the  Bible  to  be  the 
word  of  God,  so  far  as  it  is  translated  correctly ; 
we  also  believe  the  Book  of  Mormon  to  be  the 
word  of  God. 

Article  p.  We  believe  all  that  God  has  re- 
vealed, all  that  He  does  now  reveal,  and  we  be- 
lieve that  He  will  yet  reveal  many  great  and  im- 
portant things  pertaining  to  the  kingdom  of  God. 
(See  under  7  and  8.) 

Article  10.  We  believe  in  the  literal  gather- 
ing of  Israel  and  in  the  restoration  of  the  ten 


Mormonism  as  a  Religion  105 

tribes.  That  Zion  will  be  built  upon  this  conti- 
nent. That  Christ  will  reign  personally  upon  the 
earth,  and  that  the  earth  will  be  renewed  and  re- 
ceive its  paradisiacal  glory. 

Article  n.  We  claim  the  privilege  of  wor- 
shiping Almighty  God  according  to  the  dictates 
of  our  conscience,  and  allow  all  men  the  same 
privilege,  let  them  worship  how,  where  or  what 
they  may. 

Article  12.  We  believe  in  being  subject  to 
kings,  presidents,  rulers  and  magistrates,  in  obey- 
ing, honouring  and  sustaining  the  law. 

Article  ij.  We  believe  in  being  honest,  true, 
chaste,  benevolent,  virtuous,  and  in  doing  good 
to  all  men  ;  indeed,  we  may  say  that  we  follow 
the  admonition  of  Paul :  "  We  believe  all  things, 
we  hope  all  things,"  we  have  endured  many 
things,  and  hope  to  be  able  to  endure  all  things. 
If  there  is  anything  virtuous,  lovely,  or  of  good 
report  or  praiseworthy,  we  seek  after  these 
things. 


These  Articles  of  Faith  are  misleading  from 
two  points  of  view ;  first,  because  of  their  decep- 
tive use  of  words  and,  second,  because  they  make 
no  mention  of  many  of  the  most  important 
Mormon  doctrines  and  practices. 

To  illustrate  let  us  carefully  examine  the  first 
article.  Any  evangelical  Christian  would  en- 
dorse it  as  it  stands,  but  does  it  mean  what  it 
says  ?  Do  they  get  from  the  terms  "  God," 
"  Jesus  Christ  "  and  the  "  Holy  Ghost  "  the  same  ' 
meanings  which  those  terms  have  had  ever  since 


106    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

Christ  came  ?  We  shall  interpret  these  terms  by 
authoritative  utterances  found  in  Mormon  pub- 
lications bearing  the  official  imprint  and  approval 
of  the  Mormon  Church. 

"  Are  there  more  Gods  that  one  ?  Yes, 
many  "(Cat.,  p.  13).  "  God  Himself  was  once 
as  we  are  now,  and  is  an  exalted  man "  (JD, 
VI,  4).  "  And  you  have  got  to  learn  how 
to  be  Gods  the  same  as  all  the  Gods  have 
done  before  you  "  (Comp.,  283).  "  He  [Adam] 
is  our  Father  and  our  God  and  the  only  God 
with  whom  we  have  to  do "  (JD,  I,  50). 
"  There  is  no  other  God  in  heaven  but  that 
God  who  has  flesh  and  bones  "  (Comp.,  287). 
"  When  our  Father  Adam  came  into  the  Garden 
of  Eden,  he  came  into  it  with  a  celestial  body  and 
brought  Eve,  one  of  his  wives,  with  him  "  (JD, 
I,  50).  "  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Father  are  two 
persons,  in  the  same  sense  that  Peter  and  John 
are  two  persons  .  .  .  possessing  every  organ, 
limb  and  material  part  that  man  possesses " 
(Key,  42).  "  Each  God  through  his  wife,  or 
wives,  raises  up  a  numerous  family  of  sons  and 
daughters  .  .  .  for  each  father  and  mother 
will  be  in  a  condition  to  multiply  forever  and 
ever "  (The  Seer,  I,  37).  "  His  chief  glory  will 
be  to  bring  to  pass  the  eternal  life  and  happiness 
of  his  posterity  "  (Witness,  462). 

The  following  quotations  are  taken  from  the 
Key  to  Theology,  pages  37  to  45  : 

Beings  which  have  no  passion  have  no  souls, 
.  .  .  But  every  one  who  is  eventually  made 


Mormonism  as  a  Religion  107 

perfect,  raised  from  the  dead,  and  filled  or  quick- 
ened with  a  fullness  of  celestial  glory,  will  be- 
come like  them  [the  Gods]  in  every  respect, 
physically,  and  in  intellect.  .  .  .  Gods, 
angels  and  men  are  all  of  one  species,  one  race, 
one  great  family,  widely  diffused  among  the 
planetary  systems  as  colonies,  kingdoms,  nations, 
etc.  .  .  .  An  immortal  man  possessing  a 
perfect  organization  of  spirit,  flesh  and  bones, 
and  perfected  in  all  his  attributes,  in  all  the  full- 
ness of  celestial  glory,  is  called  a  God.  .  .  . 
Again  it  follows  that  in  the  use  of  this  power, 
by  consent  and  authority  of  the  Head,  any  one 
of  these  Gods  may  create,  organize  and  people 
and  enjoy  worlds  on  worlds  .  .  .  each  of 
them  can  find  room  in  the  infinitude  of  space, 
and  unoccupied  chaotic  elements  in  the  bound- 
less storehouse  of  eternal  riches,  with  which  to 
erect  for  himself  thrones,  principalities  and  powers, 
over  which  to  reign  in  still  increasing  might, 
majesty  and  dominion,  forever  and  ever.  .  .  . 
It  is,  therefore,  an  absolute  impossibility  for  God, 
the  Father,  or  Jesus  Christ,  to  be  everywhere 
personally  present. 

A  little  further  explanation  is  necessary  to 
show  their  idea  of  the  origin  of  the  race.  The 
devil's  punishment  consists  in  not  having  a  body 
and  therefore  he  cannot  enjoy  the  pleasures  of 
the  body  and  cannot  have  even  a  probation  for 
exaltation.  These  gods  propagate  spirits  which 
inhabit  the  air  waiting  for  "  tabernacles  of  flesh," 
for  the  "  principle  of  happiness  consists  in  having 
a  human  body."  Only  in  this  way  can  these 


io8    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

spirits  become  candidates  for  eternal  glory 
and  the  "  greatest  exaltation."  Therefore  it  is 
the  duty  of  every  good  Mormon  to  provide  as 
many  as  possible  of  the  tabernacles  of  flesh 
(human  bodies)  for  these  waiting  unembodied 
spirits.  Notice  how  this  idea  is  articulated  with 
polygamy,  for  in  turn  those  who  are  faithful 
(that  is,  propagate  numerously)  are  sent  to  peo- 
ple other  worlds  and  rule  over  them  as  Adam 
does  over  this.  The  favourite  hymn  of  the 
Mormon  Church  is  based  upon  this  idea.  It  was 
written  by  Eliza  R.  Snow,  the  first  woman 
"  sealed  "  to  Joseph  Smith.  After  his  death  she 
became  the  polygamous  wife  of  Brigham  Young. 
She  was  also  a  sister  of  another  president,  Lorenzo 
D.  Snow.  The  hymn  follows  : 

Oh,  my  Father,  Thou  that  dwellest 

In  the  high  and  glorious  place ; 
When  shall  I  regain  Thy  presence, 

And  again  behold  Thy  face  ? 
In  Thy  holy  habitation 

Did  my  spirit  once  reside. 
In  my  first  primeval  childhood 

I  was  nurtured  by  Thy  side. 

For  a  wise  and  glorious  purpose 

Thou  hast  placed  me  here  on  earth 
And  withheld  the  recollection 

Of  my  former  friends  and  birth. 
Yet  ofttimes  a  secret  something 

Whispered,  "  You're  a  stranger  here  ;  " 
And  I  felt  that  I  had  wandered 

From  a  more  exalted  sphere. 


Mormonism  as  a  Religion  109 

I  had  learned  to  call  Thee  Father, 

Through  Thy  spirit  from  on  high, 
But  until  the  Key  of  Knowledge 

Was  restored,  I  knew  not  why. 
In  the  heavens  are  parents  single  ? 

No ;  the  thought  makes  reason  stare. 
Truth  is  reason ;  truth  eternal 

Tells  me  I've  a  mother  there. 

When  I  leave  this  frail  existence, 

When  I  lay  this  mortal  by, 
Father,  mother,  may  I  meet  you 

In  your  royal  court  on  high  ? 
Then,  at  length,  when  I've  completed 

All  you  sent  me  forth  to  do, 
With  your  mutual  approbation 

Let  me  come  and  dwell  with  you. 


This  doctrine  is  not  obsolete,  for  in  the  Salt 
Lake  City  Tabernacle,  February  24,  1907,  a  high 
Mormon  ecclesiastic  used  this  hymn  as  his  text 
and  in  the  course  of  his  sermon  said  : 

The  family  in  all  its  relations  will  exist 
throughout  the  countless  ages  of  the  world  to 
come.  My  wife  and  mother  will  not  be  sexless 
beings  in  the  hereafter.  I  insist  that  I  will  enjoy 
with  them  there  all  the  same  pure  and  holy 
emotions  that  I  have  felt  in  this  life. 

If  further  evidence  of  the  sensualism  of  the 
whole  system  is  needed  note  the  following  : 

This  individual  spiritual  body  was  begotten 
by  the  heavenly  Father,  in  His  own  likeness  and 


no    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

image  and  by  the  laws  of  procreation.  It  was 
born  and  nurtured  in  the  heavenly  mansions. 
.  .  .  The  spirits  which  kept  their  first  estate 
were  permitted  to  descend  below  and  obtain 
tabernacles  of  flesh  (Key,  56-57). 

This  is  practically  a  revival  of  the  ancient 
Phallic  religion  or  equivalent  to  the  introduction 
into  America  of  the  worship  of  the  Hindu  Siva. 
It  may  be  further  said  that  there  are  passages  in 
the  Mormon  books  so  much  more  gross  than 
these  that  we  could  not  quote  them  here. 

Concerning  Christ  Brigham  Young  declared 
(JD,  I,  50),  "  He  was  not  begotten  of  the  Holy 
Ghost."  In  a  sermon  (JD,  II,  81,  82)  Apostle 
Hyde  declared  that  Christ  was  married  to  the  two 
Marys  and  Martha  at  the  wedding  in  Cana  of 
Galilee.  From  the  passages  in  the  fifty-third 
chapter  of  Isaiah,  "  He  shall  see  His  seed  "  and 
"  Who  shall  declare  His  generation  ? "  Hyde 
argued  that  Christ  must  have  been  married  and 
that  He  also  had  children.  He  also  claimed  that 
the  use  of  the  term  "  Lord  "  by  the  women  at  the 
sepulchre  was  equivalent  to  saying  "  husband." 

The  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  prophet's 
birth  came  on  a  Saturday  in  1905  and  the  fol- 
lowing Monday  was  Christmas.  On  the  Sunday 
intervening  a  great  celebration  of  the  "  Two 
Birthdays."  was  held  in  the  Salt  Lake  Taberna- 
cle. The  whole  front  end  of  the  tabernacle 
ceiling  was  lined  with  light  blue  bunting  studded 


Mormonism  as  a  Religion  1 1 1 

with  many  stars.  On  either  side  of  the  organ 
were  two  large  stars  cut  in  the  bunting  which 
were  illuminated  by  electric  lights  from  behind. 
These  two  stars  represented  Jesus  and  Joseph 
Smith.  Both  here  and  in  the  addresses,  Jesus 
and  Joseph  Smith  were  recognized  as  of  equal 
magnitude  in  the  Mormon  firmament. 

The  teaching  concerning  the  Holy  Spirit  may 
be  seen  from  the  following : 

The  Holy  Ghost  comes  only  by  the  laying  on 
of  hands  by  the  priesthood  (Mormon  Doctrines, 
1 6,  17).  This  leads  to  the  investigation  of  that 
substance  called  the  Holy  Spirit.  .  .  .  There 
are  several  of  these  subtle,  invisible  substances  as 
yet  little  understood  by  man,  and  their  existence 
is  only  demonstrated  by  their  effects.  Some  of 
them  are  recognized  under  several  terms,  electric- 
ity, galvanism,  magnetism,  animal  magnetism, 
essence,  spirit,  etc.  The  purest,  most  refined  and 
subtle  of  all  these  substances,  and  the  one  least 
understood,  or  even  recognized,  by  the  less  in- 
formed among  mankind,  is  that  substance  called 
the  Holy  Spirit.  This  material,  like  all  others,  is 
one  of  the  elements  of  material  or  physical  exist- 
ence and  therefore  subject  to  the  necessary  laws 
which  govern  all  matter  as  before  enumerated. 
J  .  .  (Key,  46.) 


No  one  would  ever  dream  of  reading  into  their 
Articles  such  meanings  as  these.  Do  such  defi- 
nitions of  the  character,  attributes  and  activities 


112     Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

of  the  Holy  Spirit  satisfy  the  evangelical  Chris- 
tian ?  Repeatedly  He  is  referred  to  as  "  it " : 
"  Like  electricity  it  is  imparted  by  the  contact  of 
two  bodies  through  the  channel  of  the  nerves." 

In  article  three  they  profess  to  believe  in  the 
atonement  of  Christ  but  only  "  by  obedience  to 
the  laws  and  ordinances  of  the  Gospel."  But  in 
their  Compendium  (8,  9)  they  say  that  faith 
in  the  atonement  of  Christ  saves  no  one,  and  that 
men  are  saved  by  a  life  of  good  works.  Talmage 
(Articles  of  Faith,  120)  says  that  the  doctrine  of 
justification  by  faith  is  evil  and  only  evil.  No 
one  can  be  saved  without  baptism  (Cat.,  40) 
and  all  who  are  not  Mormons  will  be  damned 

(JD,  139). 

The  Mormon  interpretation  of  article  four 
follows : 


There  is  but  one  kind  of  baptism  .  .  . 
any  other  kind  of  baptism  is  spurious  and  of  no 
effect.  The  living  may  be  baptized  for  the  dead. 
.  .  .  The  living  relatives  .  .  .  stand  in 
name  and  place  of  the  departed  and  receive  the 
ordinances  to  be  placed  to  the  credit  of  the  dead. 
.  .  .  The  place  for  these  administrations  is 
in  a  temple  built  to  the  Most  High  God,  after 
the  pattern  revealed.  .  .  .  The  fathers  in  the 
spirit  world  look  to  the  children  in  the  flesh  to 
perform  for  them  the  works  which  they  were 
unable  to  attend  to  while  they  were  in  the  body 
(Mor.  Doc.,  38,  40). 

There  is  a  set  mode  by  which  this  great  gift 


Mormonism  as  a  Religion  1 13 

[the  Holy  Spirit]  is  conferred  upon  mankind 
.  .  .  the  laying  on  of  hands  by  men  who 
have  themselves  received  it  and  have  been  called 
of  God  and  ordained  to  administer  it  (Mor.  Doc., 
16,  17). 

No  one  would  think  by  reading  article  five 
that  the  chief  hierarchs  of  the  Mormon  Church 
claim  the  utmost  of  authority  over  the  priest- 
hood and  all  others  under  them,  yet  here  is  what 
they  say : 

Men  who  hold  the  priesthood  possess  divine 
authority  thus  to  act  for  God ;  and  by  possessing 
part  of  God's  power  they  are  really  part  of  God. 
.  .  .  Men  who  honour  the  priesthood  in 
them  honour  God,  and  those  who  reject  it  reject 
God  (Witness,  187). 

I  would  just  as  soon  think  of  heaven  entering 
into  chaos  and  of  the  throne  of  God  being  shaken 
to  its  foundation  as  to  think  that  the  priesthood 
of  the  Son  of  God  had  gone  wrong  in  its  author- 
ity (President  Cannon,  in  tabernacle,  April  5, 
1897). 

Their  priesthood  gives  them  the  right  to  ad- 
vise and  instruct  the  Saints,  and  their  jurisdiction 
extends  over  all  things  spiritual  and  temporal 
(Sermon  by  President  Gowan,  Logan  Journal, 
May  26,  1898). 

Whatever  I  might  have  obtained  in  the  shape 
of  learning  by  searching  and  study  respecting 
the  arts  and  sciences  of  men,  whatever  principles 
I  may  have  imbibed  during  my  scientific  re- 
searches, yet  if  the  prophet  of  God  should  tell 
me  that  a  certain  theory  or  principle  which  I 


114    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

might  have  learned  was  not  true,  I  do  not  care 
what  my  ideas  might  have  been ;  I  should  con- 
sider it  my  duty  at  the  suggestion  of  my  file 
leader  to  abandon  that  theory  or  principle 
(Woodruff,  JD,  V,  83). 

If  brother  Brigham  tells  me  to  do  anything  it 
is  the  same  as  though  the  Lord  told  me  to  do  it. 
This  is  the  course  for  you  and  every  other  saint 
to  take  (Apostle  Kimball,  JD,  I,  161). 

At  the  Smoot  investigation  the  present  presi- 
dent of  the  Mormon  Church,  Joseph  F.  Smith, 
declared  that  they  did  not  pretend  to  exercise 
control  over  any  one  except  in  spiritual  matters, 
yet  this  same  man  said  at  Provo,  "  When  a  man 
says  you  may  direct  me  spiritually  but  not  tem- 
porally, he  lies  in  the  presence  of  God  "  (News, 
April  25,  1895). 

Space  to  deal  thus  with  all  of  these  articles  is 
lacking,  though  all  might  be  treated  in  a  similar 
manner.  In  articles  eight  and  nine,  their  ex- 
pressed faith  in  the  Bible  as  the  Word  of  God  is 
modified  by  "  so  far  as  it  is  translated  correctly." 
How  much  this  means  is  seen  by  the  following : 

Add  all  this  imperfection  to  the  uncertainty  of 
the  translation,  and  who,  in  his  right  mind,  could, 
for  one  moment,  suppose  the  Bible,  in  its  present 
form,  to  be  a  perfect  guide  ?  Who  knows  that 
even  one  verse  of  the  Bible  has  escaped  pollu- 
tion, so  as  to  convey  the  same  sense  now  that  it 
did  in  the  original  ?  (Divine  Authority  of  BM, 
218). 


Mormonism  as  a  Religion  1 1 5 

Thou  fool  that  shall  say  a  Bible,  a  Bible,  we 
have  got  a  Bible,  and  we  need  no  more  Bible. 
.  .  .  Ye  need  not  suppose  that  it  contains 
all  my  words  ;  neither  need  ye  suppose  that  I 
have  not  caused  more  to  be  written  (BM,  II ; 
Nephi  29:  6-10). 

Wilford  Woodruff  is  a  prophet  and  I  know 
that  he  has  a  great  many  prophets  around  him, 
and  he  can  make  Scriptures  as  good  as  those  in 
the  Bible  (Apostle,  afterwards  President,  J.  W. 
Taylor,  Conference,  April  5,  1897). 


It  does  not  at  all  trouble  the  Mormons  that 
their  books  or  revelations  contradict  each  other, 
for  President  Woodruff,  at  the  conference  just 
referred  to,  placed  the  Bible,  the  Book  of  Mor- 
mon, the  Doctrine  and  Covenants,  and  the  Pearl 
of  Great  Price  on  the  pulpit  and  said, "  Compared 
with  the  living  oracle  these  books  are  nothing  to 
me,"  That  is  to  say,  the  president  of  the  church 
is  the  mouthpiece  of  God  and  whatever  he  says 
has  authority  even  though  it  contradicts  all  of 
their  sacred  books,  because  it  is  the  most  recent 
expression  of  the  mind  of  God.  The  writer  has 
attended  scores  of  services  in  the  tabernacle  in 
Salt  Lake  City,  in  other  parts  of  Utah  and  adja- 
cent states  and  has  seen  the  Bible  used  in  such 
services  but  once.  A  friend  states  that  he  has 
attended  fifty-four  Mormon  services  and  has 
never  seen  the  Bible  used. 

Another   friend    was   discussing   Mormonism 


1 16    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

with  Bishop  Chipman,  of  American  Fork,  Utah, 
and  the  bishop  declined  to  accept  as  true  certain 
Bible  verses.  He  was  reminded  that  he  had 
quoted  Scripture  to  prove  his  point  and  that  if  it 
was  authoritative  in  one  place  it  must  be  in  an- 
other. The  bishop  replied :  "  I  quoted  the 
Bible  just  because  you  fellows  believe  in  it." 
This  reply  illustrates  fairly  the  attitude  of  the 
average  Mormon  towards  the  Word  of  God.  Just 
remember  this  when  some  Mormon  elder  calls  at 
your  door  and  in  his  pious  cant  tells  you  of  his 
reverence  for  the  Bible. 

From  article  eleven  one  would  think  that 
they  took  exceptionally  high  ground  with  refer- 
ence to  evangelical  churches  but  in  other  places 
they  say  that  the  ministry  of  the  Christian 
churches  is : 


A  spurious  priesthood,  destitute  of  divine  au- 
thority, divine  inspiration  and  power  .  .  . 
set  up  by  ambitious  and  designing  men  .  .  . 
base  counterfeit  of  the  true  and  heavenly  coin 
(Mor.  Doc.,  21). 

Such  persons  [ministers,  etc.]  are  false  teachers 
and  the  wrath  of  God  is  kindled  upon  them 
(Cat.,  44). 

Any  person  who  shall  be  so  wicked  as  to  re- 
ceive a  holy  ordinance  of  the  Gospel  from  the 
ministers  of  the  apostate  [Christian]  churches 
will  be  sent  down  to  hell  with  them,  unless  he 
repents  of  the  unholy  and  impious  act  (Seer,  I,  II, 


Mormonism  as  a  Religion  117 

Article  twelve  seems  all  right  until  we  get 
their  point  of  view  from  such  utterances  as 
follow : 


The  priesthood  holds  the  right  to  give  laws 
and  commandments  to  individuals,  churches, 
rulers,  nations  and  the  world  ;  to  appoint,  ordain 
and  establish  constitutions  and  kingdoms  ;  to  ap- 
point kings,  presidents,  governors  or  judges 
(Key,  70). 

The  priesthood  will  bear  rule,  and  hold  the 
government  of  the  kingdom  under  control  in  all 
things  (JD,  II,  189). 

The  priesthood  is  the  legitimate  rule  of  God, 
whether  in  the  heavens,  or  on  the  earth,  and  it  is 
the  only  legitimate  power  that  has  a  right  to  rule 
on  the  earth ;  and  when  the  will  of  God  is  done 
on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven,  no  other  power  will 
be  or  rule  (JD,  V,  186). 

These  explanations  are  very  important  as 
proving  the  menace  of  Mormonism  to  our  polit- 
ical institutions.  That  these  sentiments  are  not 
obsolete  we  need  only  to  read  (News,  December 
6,  1900)  what  the  present  "  Prophet,  Seer  and 
Revelator "  said  to  his  people  on  this  point : 
"  The  question  with  me  is  ...  when  I  get 
the  word  of  the  Lord  as  to  who  is  the  right  man 
[to  vote  for]  will  I  obey  it,  no  matter  if  it  does 
come  contrary  to  my  convictions  ?  " 

No  fault  could  be  found  with  their  last  article 
if  it  really  meant  what  it  says.  In  this  connec- 


1 1 8    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

tion  an  utterance  from  Brigham  Young  is  inter- 
esting, to  say  the  least.  It  is  pleasant  to  be  able 
to  agree,  in  part,  with  what  that  vigorous  man 
said  about  his  own  people : 

I  have  many  a  time  in  this  stand  dared  the 
world  to  produce  as  mean  devils  as  we  can.  We 
can  beat  them  at  anything.  We  have  the  great- 
est and  smoothest  liars  in  the  world,  the  cunning- 
est  and  most  adroit  thieves,  and  any  other  shade 
of  character  that  you  can  mention.  We  can 
pick  out  elders  in  Israel  right  here  who  can  beat 
the  world  at  gambling ;  who  can  handle  the 
cards  ;  can  cut  and  shuffle  them  with  the  smart- 
est rogue  on  God's  footstool.  .  .  .  We  can 
beat  the  world  at  any  game.  We  can  beat  them 
because  we  have  men  here  that  live  in  the  light  of 
the  Lord ;  that  have  the  holy  priesthood  and 
hold  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  God  (News, 
VI,  91). 

It  is  to  be  doubted  if  any  more  blasphemous 
statement  can  be  found  in  the  English  language 
than  the  reasons  why  Mormons  "  can  beat  the 
world."  After  such  a  statement  from  Young  the 
Mormons  have  no  right  to  complain  at  anything 
that  may  be  said  about  them  by  others. 

It  is  evident  that  these  Articles  of  Faith  are 
misleading  because  no  one  could  possibly  get  the 
Mormon  idea  by  studying  them,  and  because  of 
what  they  omit  No  man  can  be  a  Mormon  in 
good  fellowship  and  standing  to-day  without 
believing  and  practicing  these  omitted  doctrines. 


Mormonism  as  a  Religion  1 1 9 

There  is  no  hint  of  them  in  the  published  arti- 
cles unless  they  may  be  supposed  to  be  included 
in  the  "  etc."  of  article  seven. 

In  this  "  etc/'  not  one  word  is  said  about  the 
"  everlasting  covenant  of  polygamy "  in  which 
they  must  abide  or  be  "  damned,"  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  "  no  one  can  reject  this  covenant,  and 
be  permitted  to  enter  into  my  glory"  (DC,  132). 
Joseph  F.  Smith  said  to  a  General  Conference  of 
the  Young  People's  Mutual  Improvement  Asso- 
ciation, held  in  the  Salt  Lake  Tabernacle,  June 
5,  1904: 

There  is  no  exaltation  for  any  man  without 
a  woman  nor  for  any  woman  without  a  man. 
.  .  .  Alone  is  not  in  the  likeness  of  God. 
There  is  no  exaltation  or  eternal  progression 
without  a  wife.  We  must  live  as  God  lives. 
[Note  the  inference.]  Marriage  is  eternal. 
Neither  man  nor  death  can  separate.  The  only 
thing  that  can  separate  is  absolute  apostasy  from 
the  Mormon  Church.  Then  his  once  wife,  or 
talent,  as  Jesus  put  it,  will  be  taken  from  him  and 
given  to  one  who  has  ten.  This  is  the  most 
vital  principle  of  the  Gospel.  It  involves  the 
well-springs  of  life. 

This  same  man  is  one  of  those  who  in  order  to 
secure  statehood  promised  not  to  teach  polygamy 
and  who,  under  oath  during  the  Smoot  investiga- 
tion, said  that  he  did  not  teach  it.  Be  that  as  it 
may,  it  would  seem  that  the  "  most  vital  principle 


1 2o    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

of  the  Gospel"  ought  to  be  mentioned  in  the 
Articles  of  Faith. 

It  may  be  stated  without  fear  of  successful 
contradiction  that  the  older  Mormons,  and  the 
present  hierarchy  (which  absolutely  controls  the 
affairs  of  the  church),  are  living  up  to  this  omitted 
doctrine  as  nearly  as  they  dare.  The  same  may 
be  said  with  reference  to  the  other  omitted  doc- 
trines. 

The  Articles  do  not  mention  tithing,  yet  the 
Mormon  Church  demands  that  every  convert 
shall  pay  into  its  treasury  one-tenth  of  all  his 
possessions,  and  thereafter,  one-tenth  of  his  an- 
nual income.  This  is  the  sine  qua  non  of  a  good 
Mormon.  If  he  does  not  leave  this  undone  he 
may  do  almost  anything  else,  and  still  retain  his 
standing  in  the  church.  Contrary  to  the  usual 
supposition  these  tithes  do  not  go  to  pay  the  ex- 
penses of  the  local  meeting-house  or  worship. 
This  money  goes  to  the  centralized  hierarchy  at 
Salt  Lake  City,  which  has  never  given  an  ac- 
count of  how  much  has  been  received  or  of  what 
has  been  done  with  it.  At  each  general  confer- 
ence the  leaders  appoint  an  auditing  committee 
from  among  themselves  and  the  report  is  given 
briefly,  in  the  most  general  terms.  Nor  does 
this  tithing  end  the  financial  obligation  of  the 
Mormon  to  his  church.  The  first  Sunday  of 
every  month  there  must  be  a  fast  and  what  has 
been  saved  in  this  way  must  be  brought  to  the 


Mormonism  as  a  Religion  121 

priesthood.  All  local  expenses,  such  as  the 
building  of  meeting-houses,  their  repairs,  litera- 
ture, lights,  heat  and  everything  else  must  be 
borne  by  the  local  worshipers  in  addition  to 
their  tithes.  Some  official  statements  follow : 

It  is  a  day  for  the  tithing  of  my  people  ;  for  he 
that  is  tithed  shall  not  be  burned  at  his  com- 
ing "  (DC,  64,  23).  A  record  is  also  kept  of  all 
people  who  are  not  tithe-payers,  so  that  it  might 
be  known  who  are  faithful  and  who  are  not 
(News,  April  10,  1900). 

The  tithing  books  are  also  the  books  from 
which  the  faithful  dead  are  called  up.  Presiding 
Bishop  Preston  (who  has  charge  of  the  tithing) 
said  "  that  we  should  be  judged  out  of  the  books 
and  that  all  would  be  judged  according  to  their 
works  "  (News,  May  30,  1898). 

The  doctrine  of  brother  Joseph  is,  that  not  one 
dollar  of  that  you  possess  is  your  own ;  and  if 
the  Lord  wants  it  to  use,  let  it  go,  and  it  is  none 
of  your  business  what  He  does  with  it  (Young, 
JD,  I,  340). 

Every  adult  male  member  is  expected,  upon 
"  call,"  to  spend  at  least  two  years  on  a  "  mission  " 
at  his  own  charges  wherever  the  authorities  may 
direct.  If  a  poor  man  is  "  called "  his  ward 
sometimes  gives  him  a  farewell  benefit  dance  or 
in  some  other  way  raises  money  to  send  him  off. 
His  poor  wife  must  struggle  along  as  best  she 
can  at  home  to  support  herself  and  babies  and 
send  some  of  her  pittance  to  her  husband  that  he 


122    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

may  carry  on  his  missionary  work.  People  often 
wonder  at  the  self-sacrifice  of  these  Mormon 
elders.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  they  are 
not  volunteers.  They  are  "  called  "  to  go  which 
means  that  they  would  be  ostracized  socially, 
boycotted  commercially  and  practically  excom- 
municated from  the  church  should  they  refuse. 
Not  infrequently  these  missionaries  heap  the 
vilest  curses  upon  the  authorities  for  sending 
them  but  they  go  just  the  same.  A  bishop  may 
have  the  monopoly  of  some  industry  in  his  town 
and  some  bright  young  fellow  may  cut  in  on  his 
trade.  The  bishop  then  sees  to  it  that  the  impu- 
dent offender  is  sent  away  on  a  two  years'  mis- 
sion. It  is  said  that  elders  who  are  faithful,  "  Shall 
not  be  weary  in  mind,  neither  darkened,  neither  in 
body,  limb  or  joint,  .  ,  .  and  they  shall  not 
go  hungry  nor  athirst  .  .  .  therefore  let  no 
man  among  you  from  this  hour  take  purse  or 
scrip,  that  goeth  forth  to  proclaim  this  Gospel  of 
the  kingdom  "  (DC,  84,  86). 

In  spite  of  this  injunction  they  do  not  go  with- 
out purse  or  scrip  but  provided  with  as  much 
money  as  their  condition  warrants.  They  go 
two  by  two  and  usually  one  of  the  two  is  a  man 
of  some  experience  who  sees  to  it  that  his  com- 
panion, a  novice,  does  his  full  part. 

If  comparisons  with  Gentiles,  "  who  preach  for 
money,"  as  the  Mormons  charge,  are  desired,  con- 
sider the  fact  that  most  of  our  evangelical  minis- 


Mormonism  as  a  Religion  1 23 

ters  spend  not  two,  but  four,  seven  or  even  ten  of 
the  best  years  of  their  lives  at  their  own  expense, 
that  they  may  fit  themselves  for  the  ministry  of 
Christ. 

Although  there  is  not  so  much  as  a  suggestion 
in  article  four  that  the  Mormons  believe  in  bap- 
tism for  the  dead  that  is  not  all  of  it.  They  be- 
lieve that  the  Gospel  will  be  preached  to  departed 
spirits  in  the  next  world,  and  as  no  one  can  be 
saved  without  baptism  every  good  Mormon  is 
baptized  for  as  many  of  his  dead  relatives  as  pos- 
sible. 

When  the  lost  spirit  accepts  the  Gospel  this 
proxy  baptism  becomes  efficacious  for  his  salva- 
tion. If  it  is  not  convenient  for  the  one  con- 
cerned to  be  baptized  for  his  dead  relatives  he 
can  hire  "  temple  workers  "  to  be  baptized  in  his 
stead.  These  "  temple  workers  "  are  usually  old 
people  who  make  their  living  in  this  way.  It  is 
held  that  this  proxy  baptism — once  removed — is 
just  as  efficacious  as  the  other.  We  quite  agree. 
But  still  further,  if  one  wishes  to  be  baptized  for 
his  ancestry  farther  back  than  he  has  their  names, 
he  can  take  his  troubles  to  one  of  the  patriarchs 
who,  by  inspiration,  will  provide  him  with  a  cor- 
rect list  of  his  ancestors  as  far  back  as  he  is  will- 
ing to  pay  for  them.  "  To  them  (patriarchs)  is 
given  the  power  by  the  inspiration  of  the  Lord 
to  designate  the  lineage  of  the  saints,  and  in  their 
blessings  point  out  the  possibilities  to  which  they 


124    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 
can  attain  through  their  faithfulness  "  (Roberts, 

P.  62). 

The  Mormons  do  not  like  to  be  reminded  that 
they  ever  practiced  the  doctrine  of  blood  atone- 
ment and  of  course  it  is  not  mentioned  in  their 
Articles.  That  doctrine  is,  in  brief,  this :  there 
are  certain  circumstances,  especially  in  cases  of 
threatened  apostasy,  when  the  only  way  to  save  a 
man's  soul  is  to  kill  him.  Under  the  guise  of  this 
beneficent  doctrine  the  "  Danites  "  or  "  Aveng- 
ing Angels,"  as  they  were  variously  called,  put 
out  of  the  way  men  who  were  offensive  to  the 
church.  These  avengers  were  under  the  direct 
personal  supervision  of  the  president  of  the 
church  and  sworn  to  obey  unquestioningly  his 
slightest  command.  The  doctrine  is  not  prac- 
ticed now  but  was  taught  and  practiced  when 
they  dared  to  do  so,  and  in  the  history  of  Utah 
and  Mormonism  hundreds  have  been  ruthlessly 
slain  in  harmony  with  its  teaching.  It  has  the 
sanction  of  no  less  a  man  than  Brigham  Young : 

Will  you  love  your  brothers  and  sisters  like- 
wise when  they  have  a  sin  that  cannot  be  atoned 
for  without  the  shedding  of  their  blood  ?  That 
is  what  Jesus  Christ  meant  [  by  "  love  thy  neigh- 
bour as  thyself"].  I  could  refer  you  to  plenty 
of  instances  where  men  have  been  righteously 
slain  in  order  to  atone  for  their  sins.  .  .  . 
The  wickedness  and  ignorance  of  the  nations 
forbid  this  principle  being  in  full  force,  but  the 


Mormonism  as  a  Religion  125 

time  will  come  when  the  law  of  God  will  be  in 
full  force.  This  is  loving  our  neighbour  as  our- 
selves ;  if  he  needs  help,  help  him ;  if  he  wants 
salvation  and  it  is  necessary  to  spill  his  blood  on 
the  earth  in  order  that  he  may  be  saved,  spill 
it.  .  .  .  That  is  the  way  to  love  man- 
kind (JD,  IV,  219,  220). 


John  D.  Lee  in  "  Mormonism'1  declares  that 
until  after  the  railroad  was  built  across  the  state 
it  was  a  rare  thing  for  a  man  to  escape  from 
Utah  with  life  and  property  secure.  Fathers 
have  been  known  to.  assist  in  the  assassination  of 
their  own  sons  for  no  other  crime  than  that  they 
were  quietly  trying  to  leave  Utah  and  the  thrall- 
dom  of  Mormonism.  In  recent  years  the  Mor- 
mons have  vigorously  denied  that  such  a  doctrine 
was  ever  taught  or  practiced.  But  a  pamphlet 
was  written  a  few  years  ago  by  one  of  the  apos- 
tles, C.  W.  Penrose,  in  which  after  making  many 
denials  he  says,  referring  to  Young's  language 
just  quoted : 

Do  we  need  the  same  language  now  ?  I  hope 
not :  but  if  there  was  any  need  of  it,  it  would 
be  just  as  applicable  now  as  then.  .  .  . 
After  baptized  persons  have  made  sacred  cove- 
nants with  God,  and  then  committed  deadly  sins, 
the  only  atonement  they  can  make  is  the  shed- 
ding of  their  blood.  At  the  same  time  the  laws 
of  the  land,  and  the  prejudice  of  the  nation,  and 
the  ignorance  of  the  world  are  such  that  this  law 


1 26    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

cannot  be  carried  out,  but  when  the  time  comes 
that  the  law  of  God  should  be  in  full  force  upon 
the  earth,  then  this  penalty  will  be  inflicted  for 
those  crimes  committed  by  persons  under  cove- 
nant not  to  commit  them. 

In  other  words  Penrose,  a  living  apostle,  de- 
clares his  belief  in  the  doctrine  just  as  Young 
preached  it  and  also  that  when  they  are  able  to 
live  this  doctrine  as  they  desire,  they  will  see 
to  it  that  the  old  reign  of  terror  under  the  Dan- 
ites  is  revived.  The  Articles  of  Faith  make  no 
mention  of  the  "  Endowments  "  that  take  place 
in  the  temple  at  Salt  Lake  City.  Here  also  are 
performed  baptisms  for  the  dead  and  other  secret 
ceremonies.  Before  this  temple  was  dedicated, 
large  numbers  of  Gentiles  were  invited  to  go 
through  it  but  since  the  dedication  no  Gentile 
eyes  have  desecrated  the  interior.  Not  even 
every  Mormon  can  get  in.  One  woman  told  the 
writer  that  she  joined  the  Mormon  Church  purely 
out  of  curiosity  to  see  what  was  in  the  temple 
and  to  know  its  secrets.  She  said  that  she  had 
been  faithful  for  ten  years  but  had  never  been 
able  to  gain  the  desired  admittance  within  its 
sacred  walls.  The  "  Temple  Mormons  "  are  a 
higher  class  than  the  others  and  look  down  upon 
their  less  fortunate  brethren  much  as  did  the  old 
time  Pharisee  upon  the  Jew  "  without  the  law." 
As  the  Temple  Mormons  rank  higher  in  this  life 
so,  they  claim,  they  will  hereafter,  for  only  such 


55 
P 
O 


55 

""S 


Mormonism  as  a  Religion  127 

can  ever  hope  to  become  ruling  gods  in  the  next 
world  and  enjoy  the  greatest  exaltation. 

Even  a  Temple  Mormon  cannot  get  into  the 
temple  unless  he  has  some  business  there  that 
can  be  transacted  nowhere  else.  Then  he  must 
have  a  certificate  from  the  bishop  of  his  ward, 
countersigned  by  the  president  of  the  Stake  of 
which  his  ward  is  a  part,  stating  that  he  is  of  un- 
doubted loyalty,  has  paid  his  tithing  to  date  and 
is  obedient  in  all  things  to  his  superiors. 

The  secrets  of  the  ceremonies  have  been  ex- 
posed by  various  persons  who  have  abandoned 
Mormonism.  As  totally  unconnected  individ- 
uals have  given  essentially  the  same  accounts  it 
is  believed  that  they  are  correct.  But  "  Temple 
Mormons  "  who  have  abandoned  their  religion 
rarely  say  anything  about  these  endowments 
because  of  the  blood-curdling  oaths  they  were 
obliged  to  take,  oaths  which  imposed  the  most 
horrible  penalties  if  they  divulged  the  secrets  of 
the  temple. 


V 
MORMONISM  AS  A  LIFE 


"  Behold  David  and  Solomon  truly  had  many  wives  and  con- 
cubines, which  thing  was  abominable  before  Me  saith  the 
Lord." — BM,  Jacob  2  :  23,  24. 

"  David  also  received  many  wives  and  concubines,  as  also 
Solomon  and  Moses,  my  servants  ;  as  also  many  others  of  my 
servants,  from  the  beginning  of  creation  until  this  time ;  and  in 
nothing  did  they  sin,  save  in  those  things  which  they  received 
not  of  me." — DC,  132, 38. 


V 

MORMONISM  AS  A  LIFE 

their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them." 
One  does  not  like  to  write  about  the 
kind  of  life  that  results  from  Mormon 
doctrine.  Either  he  will  not  say  all  that  he  feels 
and  knows,  or  some  one  will  think  him  needlessly 
brutal  and  unkind.  But  truth  must  be  told 
and  the  whole  truth  ought  to  be  known  in  order 
that  conditions  in  Utah  may  be  fully  understood. 
Mormons  of  all  classes  are  notoriously  untruth- 
ful, especially  with  reference  to  things  vital  to 
themselves.  Apostle  Penrose,  for  years  editor  of 
the  Deseret  News,  the  official  paper  of  the  Mor- 
mon Church,  is  commonly  known  as  the  "  Apos- 
tolic liar."  He  seems  to  have  deserved  the  title. 
While  the  Smoot  investigation  was  in  progress 
charges  were  made  that  the  Mormon  leaders  had 
not  kept  faith  with  the  government.  Each  time 
the  charge  was  made  Penrose  denied  it  in  his 
editorial  columns.  Once  he  wrote : 

"  We  again  emphatically  deny  .  .  .  that 
the  church  leaders  have  broken  any  pledges. 
.  .  .  No  pledges  have  been  broken  by  the 
church  leaders  or  by  their  permission." 


132    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

This  same  Penrose  was  called  to  Washington 
a  few  days  after  that  to  testify  before  the  Smoot 
Committee,  and  he  admitted  that  he  was  a 
polygamist,  living  with  two  plural  wives.  Mr. 
Tayler  asked  him,  "  Did  you  receive  special 
amnesty  at  the  hands  of  President  Cleveland,  in 
which  one  of  the  conditions  was  that  you  should 
thereafter  obey  the  laws  relating  to  living  in 
polygamy  ?  " 

Penrose  replied :  "  Yes,  sir."  Tayler  then 
asked :  "  Have  you  lived  up  to  that  amnesty  ?  " 
Penrose  replied  to  that :  "  No,  sir." 

Professor  Tanner  was  charged  with  making 
Clarice  Thatcher  his  plural  wife.  Her  father, 
Apostle  Thatcher,  was  placed  on  the  witness 
stand  and  said  that  Clarice  was  his  daughter  but 
that  he  did  not  know  whether  she  had  married 
Tanner  or  not.  He  admitted  that  there  had  been 
a  child  born  in  his  home  but  said  that  he  really 
did  not  know  to  whom  it  belonged. 

Profane  and  obscene  language  is  common 
among  men,  women,  and  children.  Bishops  and 
apostles  are  not  above  it.  One  of  the  oldest 
apostles,  who  died  in  1911,  was  notorious  for  the 
objectionable  stories  which  he  told.  A  few  years 
ago  Apostle  Lyman  declared  in  the  tabernacle 
that  obscenity  was  the  chief  sin  of  the  Mormons. 
At  a  Salt  Lake  Stake  Conference,  December  15, 
1902,  President  Smith  insisted  that  some  of  the 
priesthood  were  getting  careless,  and  the  paper 


Mormonism  as  a  Life  133 

reports  him  as  saying  on  that  occasion :  "  If  the 
High  Priests  are  frequenting  whiskey  saloons  and 
immoral  places  the  people  are  entitled  to  the 
knowledge."  In  the  evening  of  that  day  Apostle 
John  Henry  Smith  is  reported  by  the  same  paper 
as  follows: 


He  reviewed  the  work  of  the  day  and  reiterated 
and  emphasized  the  admonitions  of  President 
Smith  regarding  profanity  and  lack  of  respect  for 
sacred  things.  He  deplored  the  use  of  profane 
language  on  the  streets,  especially  by  young 
men  and,  in  some  instances,  by  girls.  He  thought 
the  leaders  in  other  denominations  were  more 
careful  in  this  respect  than  the  Saints  and  it  would 
be  wise  and  prudent  to  follow  the  example  of 
such. 

This  is  nothing  new,  for  Brigham  Young  de- 
clared in  a  conference,  October  9,  1852  :  "  You 
elders  of  Israel  will  go  into  the  canons  and  curse 
and  swear — curse  your  oxen,  and  swear  by  Him 
who  created  you.  Yes,  you  rip  and  curse  and 
swear  as  bad  as  any  pirates  ever  did." 

The  Mormons  claim  that  there  was  never  any 
immorality  in  Utah  until  the  coming  of  the 
Gentiles,  but  all  through  their  history  charges  of 
the  grossest  sins  were  common  even  after  polyg- 
amy was  practiced.  Stenhouse  says  (p.  296)  that 
on  one  occasion  Young  demanded  in  a  male 
audience  that  all  guilty  of  the  crime  of  adultery 


134    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

stand  up,  and  that  more  than  three-fourths  of  the 
audience  arose. 

The  Mormons  make  great  professions  in  the 
direction  of  temperance,  but  the  fact  is  that 
bishops  and  other  higher  officials  use  liquor. 
Brigham  Young  established  the  first  brewery  in 
Utah.  Zion's  Commercial  Mercantile  Institution 
is  owned  by  the  Mormon  Church,  has  branches 
all  over  Utah  and  is  the  largest  mercantile  concern 
in  the  state.  In  its  grocery  department  there  are 
signs  saying,  "All  kinds  of  liquors  for  family 
use."  It  is  said  to  sell  at  wholesale  and  retail 
more  liquors  than  any  other  firm  in  Utah.  The 
same  kind  of  sign  has  been  many  times  seen  in 
the  drug  store  in  Provo  owned  by  the  apostolic 
senator,  Reed  Smoot. 

Saltair  is  the  name  given  to  the  great  resort 
on  the  shores  of  Great  Salt  Lake  about  fifteen 
miles  from  Salt  Lake  City.  There  is  an  immense 
pavilion,  and  bathing  in  the  water,  that  carries 
about  twenty  per  cent,  salt  in  solution,  is  one  of 
the  unfailing  delights  enjoyed  by  thousands  of 
tourists.  To  this  place  thousands  of  Gentile  and 
Mormon  young  people  go  every  hot  day  of  the 
summer  season.  For  many  years  this  whole  es- 
tablishment was  owned  by  the  Mormon  Church 
and  they  maintained  there  an  open  bar  where 
any  one  could  buy  intoxicating  drinks.  A  dep- 
utation of  Christian  ministers  called  upon  the 
president  of  the  church  some  years  ago  and 


O 

c 
o 

c 

o 


Mormonism  as  a  Life  135 

urged  him  to  use  his  influence  to  close  this  bar 
which  was  doing  so  much  harm.  He  declared 
that  he  had  nothing  to  do  with  it  until  the  depu- 
tation proved  to  him  that  they  knew  the  books 
of  the  bar  were  made  out  on  every  page, 

In  Account  with  Lorenzo  D.  Snow,  Trustee  in 
Trust  for  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter- 
Day  Saints. 

The  dance  is  a  part  of  the  Mormon  religion. 
It  is  also  a  part  of  their  scheme  to  encourage 
early  marriage.  Sometimes  the  dances  are  held 
in  the  meeting-houses  and  have  been  known  to 
follow  a  religious  meeting  on  Sunday  night.  The 
bishop  often  opens  the  dance  with  prayer  and 
closes  it  with  the  benediction.  In  a  small  town 
the  Mormons  had  a  shambling,  old,  frame  meet- 
ing-house and  started  to  build  a  new  one.  The 
foundation  was  laid  and  then  the  whole  enter- 
prise was  given  up.  Weeds  grew  up  around  it 
but  soon  on  the  same  lot  the  church  began  work 
on  a  very  fine  large  dance  hall  and  carried  it  to 
completion. 

In  April,  1905,  the  president  of  the  Mormon 
Church  attended  a  prize-fight  that  was  staged  in 
the  theatre  owned  by  a  church  corporation  of 
which  he  also  is  president.  He  applauded  vig- 
orously the  scientific  but  none  the  less  brutal 
pounding  the  fighters  gave  each  other. 

Of  course  the  Mormons  deny  that  their  people 


136    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

are  more  immoral  than  others  but  Mormonism 
seems  really  to  have  withered  their  moral  sensi- 
bilities. They  do  not  have  the  same  standards 
as  Christian  people.  Young  men  who  are  no- 
toriously obscene  and  immoral  are  sent  away  on 
missions.  Indeed  it  seems  to  be  designed  to 
send  such  young  men  on  a  mission  in  order  to 
reform  them.  Practices  that  would  horrify  any 
but  Mormons  are  common  and  are  encouraged 
by  parents.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  where  such 
ideas  prevail,  according  to  the  testimony  of  phy- 
sicians and  nurses,  many  marriages  are  hastily 
made? 

The  history  of  polygamy  is  a  record  of  moral 
perversity  and  of  disregard  of  law  and  decency 
such  as  cannot  be  found  elsewhere  under  the 
guise  of  Christianity.  It  will  undoubtedly  sur- 
prise many  to  know  that  the  Book  of  Mormon 
provides  for  but  one  wife,  yet  such  is  the  case. 

Behold,  the  Lamanites  [Indians],  your  breth- 
ren, whom  ye  hate,  because  of  their  filthiness 
and  the  cursings  which  have  come  upon  their 
skins,  are  more  righteous  than  you;  for  they 
have  not  forgotten  the  commandment  of  the  Lord, 
which  was  given  unto  your  fathers,  that  they 
should  have  save  it  be  one  wife ;  and  concubines 
they  should  have  none  (Jacob  3:  5). 

But  the  word  of  God  burdens  me  because  of 
your  grosser  crimes.  For  behold,  thus  saith  the 
Lord,  This  people  begin  to  wax  in  iniquity; 
they  understand  not  the  Scriptures ;  for  they  seek 


Mormonism  as  a  Life  137 

to  excuse  themselves  in  committing  whoredoms, 
because  of  the  things  that  were  written  concern- 
ing David  and  Solomon  his  son. 

Behold,  David  and  Solomon  truly  had  many 
wives  and  concubines,  which  thing  was  abomina- 
ble before  Me,  saith  the  Lord 

Wherefore,  I  the  Lord  God  will  not  suffer 
that  this  people  shall  do  like  them  of  old. 

Doctrine  and  Covenants,  published  in  Kirt- 
land  in  1835, Section  101,  contains  the  following: 

Inasmuch  as  this  Church  of  Christ  has  been  re- 
proached with  the  crime  of  fornication  and  polyg- 
amy, we  declare  that  we  believe  that  one  man 
should  have  one  wife,  and  one  woman  one  hus- 
band, except  in  case  of  death,  when  either  is  at 
liberty  to  marry  again. 

In  the  same  book  (Section  49:  16)  there  is  a 
revelation  given  in  March,  1831  : 

Wherefore  it  is  lawful  that  he  should  have  one 
wife,  and  they  twain  shall  be  one  flesh,  and  all 
this  that  the  earth  might  answer  the  end  of  its 
creation. 

The  Josephites  strenuously  deny  that  Joseph 
Smith  ever  practiced  or  countenanced  polygamy. 
They  claim  that  this  was  one  of  the  corruptions 
injected  into  the  system  after  Brigham  Young 
gained  control.  Certain  it  is,  however,  that  be- 
fore they  left  Kirtland  Joseph  was  accused  by  his 
own  people  of  conduct  like  unto  polygamy.  It 


138  uMormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

is  also  certain  that  before  the  death  of  Smith 
rumours  were  rife,  inside  and  outside  of  the 
church,  that  not  alone  Smith  but  many  others 
were  practicing  polygamy.  Indeed  the  Mormon 
records  make  practical  confession,  for  at  a  meet- 
ing of  the  Presidents  of  the  Seventies,  April  29, 
1837,  this  minute  was  put  on  their  books  :  "  We 
will  have  no  fellowship  whatever  with  any  one 
belonging  to  the  Quorum  of  the  Seventies  who 
is  guilty  of  polygamy." 

Eliza  R.  Snow,  in  her  "  Biography  of  Lorenzo 
D.  Snow  "  (pp.  68-70),  says  that  she  was  a  plural 
wife  of  Joseph  Smith,  the  prophet.  Voluminous 
testimony  is  given  on  this  point  (Linn,  p.  275). 

In  Doctrine  and  Covenants  polygamy  is  not 
only  permitted  but  is  commanded  in  a  revelation 
claimed  to  have  been  received  by  Joseph  Smith 
at  Nauvoo,  July  12,  1843.  (See  Appendix.) 
It  was  not  given  publicity  at  that  time  and  the 
Mormons  continued  to  deny  the  belief,  or  prac- 
tice, until  long  after.  About  this  time  Apostle 
Taylor,  afterwards  president  of  the  church,  while 
on  a  mission  in  France  was  waited  upon  by  a 
deputation  of  ministers  and  asked  many  questions 
about  his  religion.  Among  other  things  they 
asked  about  rumours  which  had  reached  them 
that  the  Mormons  practiced  polygamy  and  he 
made  the  usual  strenuous  and  unequivocal  denial, 
saying  that  "  it  was  too  outrageous  to  admit  of 
belief."  It  is  now  well  known  that  at  that  very 


Mormonism  as  a  Life  139 

moment  he  had  six  wives  at  home  anxiously 
awaiting  his  return. 

Although  the  Mormons  went  beyond  the  jur- 
isdiction of  the  United  States  when  they  went 
to  Utah,  in  a  few  short  months  they  found  that 
they  were  again  subject  to  its  laws.  But  they 
were  a  thousand  miles  from  the  outposts  of 
civilization,  there  were  no  railroads,  the  govern- 
ment was  beginning  to  have  troubles  of  its  own, 
and  in  1852  they  felt  safe  in  announcing  to  the 
world  their  polygamous  doctrine.  Polygamy  had 
been  previously  practiced  by  those  on  the  inside 
and  was  known  to  all  Mormons. 

According  to  the  Mormon  idea  of  marriage,  as 
given  in  their  own  writings,  all  who  obey  the 
covenant  on  polygamy  shall  be  gods.  All  who 
do  not  obey,  that  is,  who  do  not  become  polyg- 
amists,  may  be  saved  but  cannot  be  exalted, 
and  must  be  servants  of  the  gods. 

All  these  marriages  must  be  sanctioned  "  by 
him  who  is  anointed. " 


Indeed  it  should  be  the  privilege  of  every 
virtuous  female,  who  has  the  requisite  capacity 
and  qualifications  for  matrimony,  to  demand,  of 
either  individuals  or  the  government,  the  privi- 
lege of  becoming  an  honoured  and  legal  wife  and 
mother,  even  if  it  were  necessary  for  her  to  be 
married  to  a  man  who  has  several  wives ;  or, 
as  Jesus  said  in  the  parable,  to  take  the  one 
talent  from  the  place  where  it  remains  neglected 


140    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

or  unimproved,  and  give  it  to  him  who  has  ten 
talents  (Key,  156). 

All  persons  who  attain  to  the  resurrection, 
and  to  salvation,  without  these  eternal  ordinances, 
or  sealing  covenants,  will  remain  in  a  single  state 
in  their  saved  condition,  to  all  eternity,  without 
the  joys  of  eternal  union  with  the  other  sex,  and 
consequently  without  a  crown,  without  a  king- 
dom, without  the  power  to  increase.  Hence 
they  are  angels  and  are  not  gods  ;  and  are  minister- 
ing spirits,  or  servants,  in  the  employ  and  under 
the  direction  of  the  royal  family  of  heaven — 
the  princes,  kings  and  priests  of  eternity  (Key, 
161,  162). 

The  covenant  on  polygamy  is  alleged  to  be  an 
"  everlasting  "  one,  and  "  from  the  beginning  of 
creation  until  this  time,"  and  yet  it  is  claimed  to 
have  been  given  Smith  by  Him  who  is  "  the  same 
yesterday,  to-day  and  forever, "  who  also  forbade 
this  very  practice  through  the  same  prophet,  as 
before  noted.  The  inconsistency  between  the 
two  statements  preceding  this  chapter  cannot  fail 
to  attract  attention. 

It  is  claimed  by  Mormon  missionaries  that 
even  in  the  palmiest  days  of  polygamy  a  man 
could  not  take  a  plural  wife  without  the  consent 
of  his  first  wife,  and  they  quote  "  Doctrine  and 
Covenants  "  in  proof.  They  always  fail,  however, 
to  point  out  that  another  verse  of  the  same  book 
says  that  if  the  first  wife  fails  to  accept  this 
covenant  and  abide  by  it "  she  shall  be  destroyed." 


Mor monism  as  a  Life  141 

The  polygamists  are  to  become  gods,  and  the 
Mormon  theory  of  marriage  makes  the  Mormon 
husband  literally  a  god  to  his  wife,  for  he  has 
complete  control  over  her  resurrection  and  eter- 
nal exaltation.  The  writer  heard  Joseph  F.  Smith 
say,  "  The  blessings  of  the  Gospel  come  to  the 
women  only  through  their  men, "  meaning  their 
husbands.  For  this  reason  a  woman  was  told 
that,  because  she  married  a  Gentile,  her  husband 
could  not  raise  her  from  the  dead,  so  she  was 
"  sealed  "  to  her  father  for  eternity.  He,  there- 
fore, could  raise  her  up  and  she  would  then  be 
his  wife.  (See  also  Linn,  p.  287.) 

The  ceremonies  connected  with  temple  mar- 
riage endowments  bear  out  this  interpretation. 
In  all  these  ceremonies  the  officiating  priest,  at 
the  proper  time,  gives  to  each  man  and  his  wife 
(or  wives)  new  celestial  names.  On  the  res- 
urrection day  the  men  who  have  paid  their  tithes 
will  be  called  from  the  dead  by  the  angel  Moroni 
by  their  new  names,  and  then  the  men,  in  turn, 
will  call  out  the  celestial  names  of  their  women 
and  thereby  raise  them.  It  is  said  that  all  through 
these  ceremonies,  which  occupy  several  hours, 
God  and  Jesus  Christ  are  impersonated  by  high 
Mormon  officials — and  some  one  also  imperson- 
ates the  devil.  In  the  last  room  which  they  enter 
there  is  a  curtain  at  one  end  with  openings 
through  which  a  man  can  put  his  face  and  hands. 
The  space  in  front  of  the  curtain  symbolizes 


142    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

earth,  and  that  behind  it  heaven.  When  the 
parties  are  properly  arranged  the  official  im- 
personating God  takes  his  place  behind  the 
curtain  and  appears  at  the  opening.  He  then 
examines  the  bridegroom  upon  all  the  signs, 
grips  and  passwords  that  have  been  given  him 
during  the  ceremonies.  When  the  candidate  is 
found  to  know  them  perfectly,  the  priest  (God) 
receives  him  behind  the  curtain  (into  heaven) 
with  himself.  The  man  then  takes  the  place  of 
God  and  similarly  examines  his  wife  and  receives 
her  behind  the  curtain  (into  heaven)  with  him- 
self. It  is  no  uncommon  thing  in  the  case  of 
trouble  between  a  Mormon  and  his  wife  for  the 
husband  to  tell  the  wife  that  if  she  does  not  obey 
him  he  will  not  raise  her  from  the  dead.  This 
seems  absurd,  but  it  is  a  fearful  threat  to  any  one 
credulous  enough  to  believe  it. 

For  several  years  after  the  publication  of  the 
commandment  to  observe  polygamy,  the  practice 
flourished  almost  without  interference  from  the 
outside.  When  the  Civil  War  finally  broke  with 
all  its  fury  upon  this  country  Lincoln  is  reported 
to  have  said  with  reference  to  the  Mormons :  "  If 
they  will  leave  me  alone  I  will  leave  them  alone." 
During  this  period  the  Mormon  authorities 
sought,  by  fair  means  or  foul,  to  compel  every 
one  to  "  live  his  religion " ;  that  is,  to  practice 
polygamy.  Many  whose  vows,  prior  to  marriage 
or  to  the  acceptance  of  Mormonism,  had  been 


Mormonism  as  a  Life  143 

made  with  the  positive  understanding  that  they 
would  under  no  circumstances  become  polyga- 
mists,  found  that  unless  they  did  so  they  were 
looked  upon  with  suspicion  and  their  property 
and  lives  were  placed  in  jeopardy.  The  author- 
ities looked  upon  a  refusal  as  the  beginning  of 
apostasy  and  treated  it  accordingly.  Many  a  first 
wife  who  had  been  solemnly  promised  that  she, 
and  only  she,  should  be  the  queen  and  mother  in 
her  home,  saw  the  promise  broken  and  another 
and  younger  woman  installed  in  the  place  that 
was  rightfully  hers. 

After  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  and  the  period 
of  reconstruction,  Congress,  which  had  jurisdic- 
tion over  Utah  as  a  territory  of  the  United  States, 
began  to  give  some  attention  to  Mormonism. 
The  Morrill,  Poland,  Edmunds  and  Edmunds- 
Tucker  laws  sought  to  deal  with  these  conditions. 
The  first  law  passed  to  prevent  the  practice  of  po- 
lygamy in  the  territories  was  in  1862,  but  scarcely 
any  attempt  was  made  to  enforce  it.  For  almost 
twenty  years  the  Mormons  were  not  seriously 
molested  in  this  regard.  In  1882  more  definite 
measures  were  adopted.  In  that  year  practically 
every  office  in  Utah  was  held  by  a  polygamist, 
but  two  years  later,  not  a  polygamist  remained  in 
office  and  twelve  thousand  Mormon  voters  had 
been  disfranchised.  To  add  to  their  discomfiture 
the  government  dissolved  the  church  corporation 
and  confiscated  the  property  it  had  owned. 


144    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

The  Mormons,  now  brought  to  their  knees  for 
the  first  time,  desired  four  things  at  any  cost : 
statehood,  the  restoration  of  their  escheated 
property,  amnesty  for  past  crimes  and  the  return 
of  their  civil  privileges.  As  a  help  in  this  direc- 
tion Wilford  Woodruff,  then  president  of  the 
Mormon  Church,  issued  his  famous  "  Manifesto  " 
on  polygamy.  The  only  passage  in  the  entire 
document  that  touched  the  case  at  all  is  found  in 
the  last  sentence.  After  reciting  the  existing 
conditions  and  the  reasons  for  the  manifesto  it 
closes  with,  "  And  I  now  publicly  declare  that 
my  advice*  to  the  Latter-Day  Saints  is  to  refrain 
from  contracting  any  marriage  forbidden  by  the 
law  of  the  land." 

Contrary  to  the  usual  understanding  this  did  not 
annul  nor  abrogate  the  commandment  on  polyg- 
amy, nor  forbid  its  practice.  At  the  most  it  re- 
lieved the  Mormons  only  of  the  mandatory  part 
of  the  covenant  to  practice  polygamy. 

The  manifesto  was  accepted  by  the  General 
Conference  of  the  church  the  following  October, 
1890,  as  "  authoritative  and  binding."  No  other 
revelation  was  ever  presented  to  the  Mormons 
for  ratification.  Their  theory  is  that  each  man  is 
authorized  to  receive  revelations  applicable  to 
himself  only ;  but  when  the  "  Prophet,  Seer  and 
Revelator  "  speaks  the  will  of  God  it  must  be  un- 
questioningly  accepted.  In  spite  of  the  unusual 

1  The  emphasis  on  "  advice  "  is  the  writer's. 


Mormonism  as  a  Life  145 

authority  behind  this  revelation,  it  was  never 
printed  in  "  Doctrine  and  Covenants  "  until  at- 
tention was  called  to  the  omission  during  the 
Smoot  trial.  It  is  now  printed  in  that  volume, 
not  with  the  other  revelations  but  separated  from 
them  by  the  index  in  the  back  of  the  book,  and 
is  entitled  "  An  Official  Declaration." 

Before  Mormons  could  get  back  property 
which  had  been  forfeited  the  government  wanted 
to  know  just  what  this  manifesto  meant.  A 
hearing  on  their  application  to  have  their  es- 
cheated property  returned  was  held  before 
Master  in  Chancery  Charles  F.  Loofbourow, 
October  19-20,  1891.  Wilford  Woodruff,  then 
president  of  the  church,  Lorenzo  D.  Snow,  his 
successor,  and  Joseph  F.  Smith,  who  in  turn  suc- 
ceeded Snow,  and  many  other  prominent  Mor- 
mons testified  under  oath  that  the  manifesto  pro- 
hibited both  the  contraction  of  new  plural  mar- 
riages, and  also  the  living  in  polygamous  cohab- 
itation with  wives  taken  previously.  They  swore 
that  it  was  their  intention  to  obey  the  law  and 
that,  as  officials  of  the  church,  they  would  see  to  it 
that  others  did  so.  The  joint  resolution  of  Con- 
gress giving  back  their  property  was  dated 
October  25,  1893,  and  contained  these  words : 

Whereas  said  church  has  discontinued  the 
practice  of  polygamy  and  no  longer  encourages 
or  gives  countenance  in  any  manner  to  practices 


146    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

in  violation  of  law,  or  contrary  to  good  morals 
or  public  policy,  etc. 

Upon  this  understanding  their  property  was 
restored.  The  Mormons  now  desired  statehood 
and  their  desire  was  reinforced  by  more  than  or- 
dinary considerations.  As  a  state  Utah  could 
pass  her  own  laws  in  reference  to  marriage  and 
her  own  courts  would  have  jurisdiction  in  the  en- 
forcement of  the  same.  In  spite  of  the  warnings 
sent  to  Congress  by  Gentiles  in  Utah  against  the 
duplicity  of  the  Mormon  leaders,  a  favourable  re- 
port was  made  on  the  Statehood  Bill  for  Utah  in 
the  following  May,  because,  as  the  report  said : 

The  Mormon  Church,  through  all  of  its  officials, 
publicly,  privately  and  in  every  way  possible  for 
mortals  to  do  and  proclaim,  have  with  bowed 
heads,  if  not  in  anguish,  pledged  their  faith  and 
honour  that  never  more  in  the  future  shall  polyg- 
amy be  in  the  Mormon  Church  either  a  doctrine 
oi  faith  or  practice. 

The  Mormon  officials  also  publicly  and  pri- 
vately pledged  that  the  union  of  church  and  state 
should  cease  and  that  there  should  be  no  further 
domination  of  politics  by  the  church.  Frank  J. 
Cannon,  as  delegate  from  the  territory  of  Utah 
to  Congress,  bore  authorized  pledges  from  the 
church  officials  to  this  effect. 

Most  of  the  Gentiles  East  and  West  accepted 
these  pledges  in  good  faith.  They  agreed  to  let 


Mormonism  as  a  Life  147 

bygones  be  bygones.  They  helped  the  church 
regain  its  property,  and  laboured  for  statehood. 
The  Liberal  (Gentile)  Party  which  was  in  power 
in  Utah,  controlling  federal  patronage  and  with 
the  backing  of  Congress,  voluntarily  dissolved  its 
organization  and  assisted  in  securing  the  amnesty 
that  was  granted  all  Mormons  in  1893  and 
legitimacy  for  children  born  of  plural  marriages. 

Thus  was  statehood  obtained,  and  on  January 
4,  1896,  Utah  took  her  place  as  a  sovereign  state 
of  the  Union. 

How  did  the  Mormon  Church  fulfill  its  pledges  ? 
Hardly  had  statehood  been  secured  before  Presi- 
dent Wilford  Woodruff  declared  that  the  church 
should  by  right  control  all  things  political  as  well 
as  spiritual  and  that  they  had  surrendered  none 
of  these  prerogatives.  The  Gentiles  passed  over 
this  utterance  as  that  of  an  old  man  in  his  dotage. 
Immediately  the  church  tried  to  force  Frank 
Cannon  to  quit  the  race  for  senator  and  give  way 
to  his  father,  the  second  in  authority  in  the 
church.  They  successfully  thwarted  the  political 
ambitions  of  Apostle  Thatcher  and  deposed  him. 
They  humbled  Brigham  Roberts  until  he  repented 
in  sackcloth  and  ashes.  The  church  has  made 
and  unmade  senators  in  Utah  and  other  states 
and  has  ruthlessly  deprived  the  very  people  who 
so  generously  surrendered  their  power  from 
participating  in  any  of  the  privileges  of 
government.  According  to  their  own  sworn 


148    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

testimony  during  the  Smoot  trial,  the  president 
and  the  apostles  of  the  Mormon  Church  have 
individually  and  officially  violated  every  pledge 
they  gave  by  which  they  received  back  their 
property  and  gained  amnesty  and  statehood. 
With  unspeakable  arrogance,  the  Mormon  Church 
connived  to  nullify  the  state  constitution  and  the 
laws  against  polygamy.  They  have  switched 
states  from  one  political  party  to  another  and 
have  admitted  that  they  always  have  a  "  steering 
committee  "  in  legislative  halls.  As  a  climax  to 
their  perfidy  they  still  compel  every  one  going 
through  the  Temple  Endowment  Ceremony  to 
take  an  oath  of  vengeance  upon  our  nation  for 
the  blood  of  the  prophets.  The  writer  has  in 
his  possession  a  statement  to  this  effect  by  a  person 
who  took  the  "  Endowments  "  as  late  as  1910. 

As  for  polygamy,  the  ennabling  act  for  state- 
hood for  Utah  contained  a  proviso  that  polygamy 
and  polygamous  cohabitation  should  be  forever 
prohibited.  The  state  constitution  was  framed  ac- 
cordingly and  the  statutes  forbid  these  crimes  in 
almost  the  same  language  as  is  used  in  the  Ed- 
munds-Tucker law,  that  was  so  effective.  Polyg- 
amy, according  to  the  law,  is  the  taking  of  new 
polygamous  wives,  and  is  punished  with  heavy 
penalties,  while  polygamous  cohabitation,  the 
crime  of  living  with  plural  wives,  is  simply  a  mis- 
demeanour and  usually  punishable  with  fines  only. 

The  trouble  comes  in  the  enforcement  of  the 


Mormonism  as  a  Life  149 

law.  It  would  be  difficult,  even  in  a  community 
where  every  sentiment  is  against  polygamy,  to 
punish  that  crime  provided  that  there  was  no 
record  of  the  plural  marriages,  and  that  the  various 
wives,  knowing  all  the  circumstances  of  their 
husband's  life,  were  satisfied  and  would  make  no 
complaint.  How  much  more  difficult  it  is  in 
Utah  where  sentiment  is  in  favour  of  polygamy 
and  where  the  courts  are  in  the  hands  of  the 
Mormons  or  those  who,  for  political  reasons,  dare 
not  offend  the  Mormon  Church !  Now  that  Utah 
is  a  state  she  has  power  to  repeal  all  her  laws 
against  polygamy,  and  our  government  could  do 
nothing  to  punish  her  for  her  perfidy.  All  this 
goes  to  show  the  necessity  of  an  amendment  to 
our  national  constitution  giving  Congress  control 
over  all  matters  connected  with  marriage  and 
divorce.  This  is  the  only  way  in  which  polygamy 
can  be  wiped  out. 

In  the  face  of  all  this  the  Mormons  elected  to 
Congress  a  defiantly  self-confessed  polygamist, 
Brigham  H.  Roberts.  Repeatedly  during  the 
Roberts  excitement  Mormon  writers  and  speakers 
stated  that  they  were  not  bound  to  keep  their 
compact  with  the  government,  because  they  were 
forced  to  make  it  in  order  to  obtain  statehood. 
They  openly  boasted  that  Utah  was  now  a  state  and 
the  government  was  helpless.  Roberts  was  then 
living  in  polygamy  and  is  now  (1912).  While  his 
case  was  pending  before  Congress  he  said ; 


150    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

Even  were  the  church  that  sanctioned  these 
marriages  and  performed  the  ceremonies  to  turn 
its  back  upon  us  and  say  that  the  marriage  is  not 
valid  now,  and  that  I  must  give  these  good  and 
loyal  women  up,  I'll  be  damned  if  I  would  (Case 
B.  H.  Roberts,  Utah,  p.  13). 

The  house  refused  to  admit  him.  One  specific 
thing  that  injured  his  case  was  the  birth  of  twins 
to  one  of  his  plural  wives,  Celia  Dibble,  about 
that  time.  In  the  summer  of  1902  this  same 
woman  gave  birth  to  another  set  of  twins  and 
Roberts  received  the  usual  public  and  private 
congratulations.  At  the  same  time  the  city 
directory  of  Salt  Lake  City  contained  the  follow- 
ing : 

Roberts,  B.  H.,  assistant  historian's  office;  Presi- 
dent Union  Savings  and  Investment  Company; 
residence,  No.  55  North  State  Street. 

Roberts,  Mrs.  Margaret  C.,  Physician,  No.  55 
North  State  Street ;  residence  same. 

In  the  Salt  Lake  Tribune,  September  8,  1899, 
a  statement  signed  by  two  reliable  men  attributed 
the  following  language  to  Apostle  H.  J.  Grant: 

I  am  a  lawbreaker ;  so  is  Bishop  Whitney ;  so  is 
B.  H.  Roberts.  My  wives  have  brought  me  only 
daughters.  I  purpose  to  marry  until  I  get  wives 
who  will  bring  me  sons. 

Angus  M.  Cannon  was  another  self-confessed 
lawbreaker.  He  admitted  it  in  court,  paid  his 


Mormonism  as  a  Life  151 

fine,  but  kept  on  living  with  the  woman  for  whose 
sake  he  was  fined  until  his  recent  death.  In  an 
interview  in  the  Salt  Lake  Telegram,  November 
25,  1 902, he  said:  "  We  never  agreed  to  abandon 
our  families.  I  never  did  and  I  never  will." 
How  do  these  statements  correspond  with  the 
sworn  statements  of  the  church  leaders  already 
quoted  ? 

To  show  its  powers  as  a  state  and  its  contempt 
for  the  sentiment  of  the  nation,  the  Utah  legisla- 
ture, then  almost  wholly  Mormon,  actually  passed 
the  Evans  Bill  as  late  as  1901,  which  provided 
that  "  no  prosecution  for  unlawful  cohabitation 
shall  be  commenced,  except  on  the  complaint 
of  the  wife  or  the  alleged  plural  wife  of  the 
accused." 

Governor  Wells  in  his  veto  message  on  this 
bill  said : 

Myself  a  product  of  that  marriage  system 
.  .  .  and  proud  of  my  heritage,  I  have  every 
reason  to  believe  that  its  enactment  would  be  the 
signal  for  a  general  demand  upon  the  national 
Congress  for  a  constitutional  amendment  directed 
solely  against  certain  social  conditions  here,  a  de- 
mand which,  under  the  circumstances,  would  as- 
suredly be  complied  with.  ...  It  really 
invites  a  deluge  of  discord  and  disaster  upon  us 
all. 

Those  "  social  conditions  "  still  exist  in  Utah 
although  the  leaders  of  the  church  took  oath  that 


152    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

they  should  cease.  As  long  as  he  lived  Wilford 
Woodruff  had  three  wives ;  President  Snow  con- 
tinued marital  relations  with  nine.  During  the 
Smoot  investigation  President  Smith  testified 
under  oath  that  he  had  continued  in  marital  rela- 
tions with  five  different  women  all  the  time  since 
the  Manifesto,  that  he  was  the  father  of  forty- 
two  children,  eleven  of  whom  had  been  born  to 
five  different  women  since  that  time.  Soon  after 
that  a  forty-third  child  was  born,  this  one  to  his 
fifth  wife,  and  on  his  confession  he  was  fined 
$300  in  court,  which  fine  he  paid.  In  the  Salt 
Lake  Telegram  of  December  2,  1902,  Smith  ad- 
mitted that  there  were  still  eight  hundred  and 
ninety-seven  heads  of  families  keeping  up  their 
polygamous  relations. 

Reports  that  come  from  Mormon  colonies  in 
Old  Mexico  and  Alberta,  Canada,  say  that  polyg- 
amy is  flourishing  there  as  in  the  olden  times 
in  Utah.  There  is  also  every  reason  to  believe 
that  many  who  marry  polygamous  wives  in  these 
foreign  countries  bring  them  back  to  Utah  and 
live  with  them.  In  that  case  they  cannot  be 
punished  for  a  more  serious  crime  than  polyg- 
amous cohabitation,  because  the  marriage,  if  it 
could  be  proven,  took  place  outside  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  state. 

In  the  territory  of  Arizona,  over  which  the 
federal  courts  had  jurisdiction  and  the  Edmunds- 
Tucker  law  was  still  in  force,  several  Mormons 


Mormonism  as  a  Life  153 

have  been  convicted  and  punished  for  polygamy 
during  the  past  ten  years.  Being  now  a  state 
these  restrictions  are  removed  and  it  has  power 
to  make  its  own  laws.  In  Wyoming  and  espe- 
cially in  Idaho  many  families  are  living  in  open 
polygamy.  At  one  hotel  in  Wyoming  the  writer 
has  seen  three  different  wives  living  in  turn  with 
the  same  proprietor. 

The  evidence  in  the  Smoot  case  shows  that 
high  Mormon  ecclesiastics  have  officiated  at 
many  plural  marriages  since  1890.  Some  of 
these  were  performed  in  Utah.  Charles  Merrill 
swore  that  he  was  married  to  one  wife  in  1888 
and  to  another  in  1891,  the  latter  ceremony  being 
performed  by  his  father,  Apostle  Manner  W. 
Merrill,  and  that  he  had  had  continuous  relations 
with  both  women  since. 

Mr.  Tayler,  attorney  for  the  protestants  against 
Smoot,  used  the  following  language  in  his  final 
argument : 

Mr.  Worthington  [Smoot's  attorney]  admits 
this  particular  marriage  [Mrs.  Kennedy's]  when 
Apostle  Brigham  Young,  Jr.,  officiated. 

We  cannot  for  a  moment  doubt  that,  by  valid 
proof,  absolutely  convincing,  wholly  uncontra- 
dicted,  ...  it  has  been  shown  that  Apostle 
Abram  H.  Cannon  took  a  plural  wife  in  the  per- 
son of  Lillian  Hamlin,  in  1896.  We  know  that 
he  travelled  through  California  with  Apostle 
Joseph  F.  Smith,  now  president  of  the  church, 
proclaiming  her  as  his  wife.  This 


154    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

Joseph  F.  Smith  testifies  to  himself.  We  know 
that  the  family  of  Lillian  Hamlin  recognized  her 
as  Cannon's  wife.  .  .  .  We  have  the  fact  that 
a  child  was  born  to  whom  the  name  of  Cannon 
was  given  because  the  child  was  permitted  to 
share  in  the  estate  [of  its  grandfather,  George  Q. 
Cannon].  Then  about  1896  George  Teasdale, 
while  his  first  wife  was  living,  married  Marion 
Scoles.  .  .  . 

S.  S.  Newton  and  his  recent  plural  wife  were 
both  personally  served  with  process  requiring 
their  presence  before  this  committee  and  have 
fled  and  have  refused  to  appear.  .  .  .  Not 
one  of  the  many  persons  who  have  thus  been 
shown  by  indubitable  proof  to  have  taken  these 
plural  wives  has  been  criticized,  disciplined  or 
prosecuted  by  the  church  officials. 

Evidence  was  also  brought  out  to  show  that 
Apostles  Cowley  and  Taylor  had  entered  into 
plural  relations  just  previous  to  the  Smoot  trial. 
The  f  Mormon  authorities  professed  ignorance 
but  the  matter  was  pressed,  and  finally  as  a  sop 
to  public  opinion  they  were  deposed  from  the 
apostolate.  It  was  given  out  that  they  had 
resigned  but  it  is  known  that  they  fought  their 
humiliation  bitterly.  There  were  many  who  do 
not  see  why  these  should  have  been  made  an 
example  of  when  others  like  Penrose1  and  Roberts, 

1  Prof.  J.  E.  Talmadge  succeeded  Penrose  in  the  apostolate. 
To  a  high  Mormon  it  was  stated  that  Talmadge  was  a  polyga- 
mist.  He  naively  replied  :  "  Talmadge  is  no  more  a  polyg- 
amist  than  were  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob." 


Mormonism  as  a  Life  155 

who  have  openly  flaunted  their  polygamous  rela- 
tions, are  exalted. 

We  have  seen  abundance  of  evidence  that  the 
Mormons  ^are  practicing  polygamy  and  polyga- 
mous cohabitation  even  though  they  promised 
that  both  of  these  things  should  cease.  It  is  in- 
teresting now  to  note  how  they  have  kept  their 
promises  that  polygamy  should  be  no  longer  a 
"  doctrine  of  faith." 

There  is  hardly  a  Stake  or  General  Conference 
held  but  some  utterance  may  be  heard  commend- 
ing polygamy.  We  shall  be  satisfied  with  only 
the  highest  authority,  the  president  of  the  church, 
Joseph  F.  Smith,  who,  as  he  himself  said,  at 
Washington  is  "  its  Prophet,  Seer,  its  Revelator, 
the  Mouthpiece  of  God  to  the  people.  Christ's 
Vicegerent  on  earth :  the  one  and  the  only  au- 
thorized in  the  government  of  the  church  to  re- 
ceive the  revelations  of  God  for  the  church " 
(Roberts,  p,  59). 

At  the  Weber  Stake  Conference,  Ogden,  June 
12,  1903,  this  man  said  : 

When  it  comes  to  the  principle  [of  polygamy] 
itself,  I  can  defend  it  as  a  principle  of  purity 
strictly  in  accord  with  the  Gospel  ...  it  is 
a  principle  revealed  to  Joseph  Smith  by  God,  and 
the  Latter-Day  Saint  who  denies  and  rejects  that 
truth  in  his  heart  might  as  well  reject  every  other 
truth  connected  with  his  mission  (News,  June 
25,  1903). 


156    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

When  Smith  was  confronted  with  this  quota- 
tion  in  Washington  he  admitted  that  he  was  cor- 
rectly quoted  but  naively  said  that  if  he  had  been 
consulted  he  would  not  have  had  it  published. 
Why  not  ? 

Soon  after  President  Smith  gave  his  testimony 
before  the  Smoot  Committee,  he  said  in  the 
presence  of  10,000  people  in  Salt  Lake  City : 

Recently  I  have  testified  before  a  committee 
of  the  United  States  Senate,  where  I  told  them 
boldly  and  frankly  and  truthfully  what  my  status 
was  respecting  the  plural  wives  whom  I  have 
married.  I  want  to  say  to  you  who  are  here 
present  who,  like  me,  have  plural  wives,  I  am 
the  representative  of  God  on  earth.  ...  I 
have  all  the  authority  that  Joseph  Smith  and  the 
other  presidents  of  the  church  had,  down  the 
long  line  of  those  great  men,  and  I  say  to  you, 
with  all  the  authority  that  is  laid  upon  me,  if  you 
are  not  true  to  your  wives,  if  you  obey  the  cus- 
toms of  the  world  respecting  your  relation  to 
your  plural  wives,  you  will  be  eternally  damned ; 
you  will  be  denied  the  companionship  of  your 
friends  ;  you  will  be  denied  the  companionship  of 
God  (Smoot  Arguments,  74). 

One  of  the  horrors  of  the  polygamy  of  these 
days  is  that  so  much  of  it  must  be  clandestine. 
To  quote  Senator  Cannon  : 

"  The  wife  of  a  new  polygamist  cannot  claim  a 
husband ;  she  has  no  social  status ;  she  cannot, 
even  to  her  parents,  prove  the  religious  sanction 


Mormonism  as  a  Life  157 

for  her  marital  relations  "  (Everybody  s  Magazine, 
July,  1911). 

Cannon  further  says  that  a  polygamous  father 
cannot  claim  the  authority  of  the  church,  for  the 
prophet  must  be  protected  ;  the  children  cannot 
possibly  be  legitimatized,  nor  can  the  father 
publicly  recognize  them  or  their  mother.  A 
new  polygamous  wife  of  one  of  the  richest  men 
in  Utah  who  was  called  before  the  Smoot  Com- 
mittee in  1904  refused  to  tell  who  was  the  father 
of  the  little  girl  whom  she  admitted  was  her 
child  and  declared  that  she  had  no  husband ! 


VI 
MISSIONS  AMONG  THE  MORMONS 


*'  The  civilized  world  wonders  that  such  a  hideous  caricature 
of  the  Christian  religion  should  have  appeared  in  this  most  en- 
lightened land,  .  .  .  that  the  people  who  most  honour  wom- 
ankind should  be  the  ones  to  inflict  on  her  this  deep  humilia- 
tion and  outrageous  wrong." — Josiah  Strong. 

"  From  the  first  you  have  been  sappers  and  miners,  a  forlorn 
hope  to  storm  the  fortress  of  superstition,  of  ignorance,  of  dis- 
trust and  hate ;  there  has  been  no  visible  guidon  to  signal  your 
way,  no  music  to  cheer  you  on  j  it  has  been  with  you  a  march 
over  a  flinty  path  without  hope  of  reward,  save  what  your  faith 
paints  on  the  golden  heights  of  the  Beyond.  I  believe  the  time 
is  drawing  near  when  the  theocracy  which  rules  here  will  have 
to  do  one  of  two  things :  that  it  will  have  to  take  its  iron 
clamps  from  the  souls  of  the  people  or  suffer  a  mighty  loss  of 
membership.  You  have  wrought  many  holy  triumphs,  more 
triumphs  await  you  here,  and  if  you  will  toil  on  unfalteringly 
through  the  heat  of  the  noon,  I  bespeak  for  you  a  serene  even- 
ing, a  twilight  that  will  be  filled  with  warmth  and  calm,  and 
the  night  that  will  follow  will  be  radiant  with  stars."— Judge 

C.  C.  Goodwin  to  the   Salt  Lake  City  Ministers'  Association, 
1904. 


VI 

MISSIONS  AMONG  THE  MORMONS 

CAN  any  one  who  has  read  the  preceding 
pages  question  the  need  of  missionary 
work  among  the  Mormons?  Upon 
evidence  alone  can  the  Mormons  be  considered 
Christian  in  doctrine  and  life?  There  is  no 
grosser  form  of  religion  among  any  civilized 
people.  It  is  materialistic,  formal  and  sensual ; 
it  is  sacerdotal  and  sacramentarian.  Either  the 
Mormons  are  justified  in  sending  missionaries  to 
us  or  we  ought  to  send  missionaries  to  them. 
Utah  is  the  battle  ground  of  Home  Missions. 

There  are  four  hundred  communities  in  Utah 
reached  by  postal  service.  In  only  about  ninety 
of  these  is  there  any  organized  Christian  work. 
To  be  sure  many  of  them  are  very  small,  but 
there  are  more  than  forty  cities  and  towns,  each 
having  a  population  of  five  hundred  or  more,  in 
which  there  is  no  evangelical  work.  Utah  has 
twenty-seven  counties.  Seven  of  these  have  a 
combined  population  of  more  than  20,000  with 
no  Christian  work  in  any  of  them.  There  are 
six  other  counties  with  a  combined  population  of 
over  34,000  with  only  one  evangelical  church  in 
each  county.  In  addition  to  this  there  are 
161 


1 62    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

30,000  people,  mostly  in  the  south  end  of  Salt 
Lake  County,  with  practically  no  evangelical 
privileges  within  reach. 

A  few  years  ago  the  writer  went  into  one  of 
these  counties  which  had  a  population  of  over 
6,000  by  the  census  of  1900.  It  was  not  large 
geographically  for  a  Western  county  but  it  con- 
tained seven  towns,  all  upon  a  railroad,  each 
having  a  population  of  from  five  to  fourteen 
hundred.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  these  towns 
contained  an  unusually  large  proportion  of  non- 
Mormons,  there  was  no  church  organization  in 
the  county.  There  was  no  Christian  minister  or 
missionary,living  inside  or  outside  of  that  county 
who  was  doing  any  regular  work  therein. 

We  held  a  service  at  the  county  seat  which 
was  attended  by  about  forty  people.  At  its 
close,  some  women  were  eager  to  have  regular 
services.  One  woman,  speaking  for  the  rest,  said, 
"  I  am  a  Presbyterian,  this  lady  next  to  me  is  a 
Methodist,  the  next  a  Baptist,  the  next  a  Con- 

gregationalist  and  the  next  lady  is — is " 

Then  she  stopped,  not  knowing  just  how  to 
finish.  The  lady  referred  to  replied,  half-defi- 
antly  but  with  infinite  pathos  in  her  voice :  "  I 
never  had  an  opportunity  to  unite  with  any 
church."  She  was  the  mother  of  seven  children 
between  the  ages  of  twelve  and  twenty,  and  had 
been  born  in  a  county  seat  of  an  American 
state,  and  yet  could  truthfully  say  that  she  had 


Missions  Among  the  Mormons      163 

never  had  an  opportunity  to  become  a  member 
of  any  church. 

Yes,  there  are  plenty  of  difficulties  in  the 
work.  Missionaries  who  have  spent  years  in 
India,  Korea  and  on  the  Congo  being  obliged, 
because  of  failing  health,  to  seek  work  in  this 
country,  have  laboured  in  Utah.  They  tell  us 
that  Utah  is  the  most  difficult  of  all  fields  in 
which  to  obtain  visible  and  permanent  results. 
Pioneer  missionary  work  in  the  West  has  prob- 
lems all  its  own.  In  Utah  all  these  are  found 
and  in  addition,  and  the  greatest  hindrance  of  all, 
— Mormonism. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  many  of  the  Mor- 
mons are  sincere,  though  deluded ;  it  is  generally 
conceded  however  that  the  higher  a  Mormon's 
ecclesiastical  rank  the  less  likelihood  there  is  of 
his  sincerity.  In  the  matter  of  sacred  books  the 
Mormons  claim  that  they  have  all  that  we  have 
and  much  more  ;  that  the  Bible  was  all  right  for 
the  age  for  which  it  was  given  but  that  new 
revelations  are  needed,  and  that  they  have  them ; 
and,  still  further,  that  the  Living  Oracle  is  ever 
present  with  them.  The  "  Living  Oracle "  is 
the  president  of  the  whole  church.  In  this  way 
they  maintain  that  they  are  kept  in  constant 
touch  with  the  Infinite  Will  for  the  present  mo- 
ment. 

It  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  sanction  of  un- 
limited carnality  in  this  world  and  the  promise 


164    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

of  its  continuance  in  the  world  to  come  is  a 
great  attraction  to  many  Mormons.  It  is  boldly 
and  publicly  taught  that  man  is  a  polygamous 
animal — that  polygamy  is  a  physiological  neces- 
sity which  Mormonism  alone  satisfies. 

The  Mormon  organization  is  the  most  com- 
plete, thorough  and  compact  of  any  religious 
body  in  the  world.  There  is  no  other  such 
piece  of  ecclesiastical  machinery.  It  is  worked 
out  to  the  finest  detail  so  that  everybody  is 
under  constant  personal  supervision  and  each 
one  knows  it.  The  moment  any  one  wavers 
in  his  faith  it  is  known  and  the  weak  brother 
or  sister  is  visited,  "  counselled  "  and  if  necessary 
"  dealt  with "  as  the  case  demands.  Unless  a 
complete  return  to  the  faith  is  made  this  brother 
or  sister  becomes  at  once  an  object  of  suspicion, 
mistrusted  by  family,  friends  and  the  church. 
All  sorts  of  pressure  is  brought  to  bear  to  keep 
them  in  line. 

In  the  remoter  communities  of  Utah,  where 
the  Mormons  comprise  from  eighty  to  ninety- 
five  per  cent,  of  the  population,  it  is  next  to  im- 
possible to  build  up  permanent  and  self-sustain- 
ing evangelical  churches.  When  a  Mormon 
unites  with  such  a  church  there  is  no  overt  per- 
secution— he  is  simply  let  alone.  If  he  is  a 
mechanic  no  one  will  hire  him ;  if  a  farmer,  no 
one  will  buy  his  produce  except  at  ruinous 
prices.  The  Mormons  will  patronize  an  out 


ot 

15 
in 

o 


Missions  Among  the  Mormons      165 

and  out  Gentile  far  sooner  than  an  apostate.  In 
order  to  support  his  family  the  convert  is  soon 
forced  to  move  to  Salt  Lake  City,  Ogden  or  to 
some  place  where  non-Mormons  will  give  him 
a  chance.  The  elders  gather  around  such  con- 
verts from  Mormonism  and  tell  them  that  apos- 
tates never  prosper,  but  if  they  will  come  back 
to  the  church,  work  will  be  provided  in  plenty. 
Prosperity  will  be  theirs  and  they  will  not  be 
obliged  to  separate  themselves  from  home,  family 
and  friends  for  a  cold  and  uncertain  world.  It 
takes  a  man  of  great  courage  and  convictions  to 
resist  such  appeals  under  such  conditions.  There 
are  many  churches  in  Utah  whose  records  show  nu- 
merous conversions  from  Mormonism  but  whose 
membership  is  no  larger  than  twenty  years  ago. 

This  leads  to  the  consideration  of  another 
difficulty  which  confronts  the  Christian  worker 
in  Utah.  The  "  hard  headed  business  man  "  on 
the  Eastern  Board  says  :  "  We  look  at  this  matter 
from  a  business  point  of  view  and  we  must  put 
the  Lord's  money  where  it  will  bring  the  largest 
returns ;  therefore,  we  will  not  invest  much  money 
in  Utah."  Yes,  that  is  the  commercial  spirit  but 
it  is  not  the  missionary  spirit,  and  surely  it  is  the 
missionary  spirit  which  Jesus  wants  us  to  exem- 
plify. Here  are  these  people  superstitious  and 
priest-ridden ;  but  they  are  our  fellow  citizens. 
Shall  we  neglect  them  because  the  work  is  hard 
and  discouraging? 


i66    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

Again,  even  though  strong,  permanent 
churches  cannot  now  be  built  up  outside  of  the 
large  cities  in  Utah,  the  converts,  wherever  they 
go,  add  their  strength  to  the  forces  for  righteous- 
ness. Is  the  object  to  win  lost  souls  and  estab- 
lish the  kingdom  of  God,  or  to  build  up  individ- 
ual churches  in  small  towns?  If  the  latter  it 
would  be  well  to  withdraw  the  missionary  from 
all  places  except  Salt  Lake  City  and  Ogden,  for 
there  are  almost  no  evangelical  churches  in  Utah 
outside  these  two  cities  that  maintain  all-the-year 
preaching  and  are  self-sustaining. 

The  "  globe-trotter "  is  another  hindrance  to 
the  work.  He  comes  to  Salt  Lake  City  with  a 
twenty-four-hour  stop-over  ticket,  goes  through 
the  Bureau  of  (mis)  Information  sustained  by  the 
Mormons  on  the  temple  grounds,  and,  presto ! 
he  knows  more  about  the  Mormons  than  a  mis- 
sionary who  has  been  there  for  thirty  years. 
Distinguished  visitors  are  met  at  trains  by  care- 
fully chosen  escorts.  They  are  feted  and  dined, 
given  special  organ  recitals  and  have  the  "  time 
of  their  lives,"  by  order  of  the  Mormon  Church 
and  at  its  expense.  They  are  kept  so  occupied 
that  none  but  good  Mormons  can  get  near  them. 
They  think  that  it  is  «  not  so  bad  "  after  all.  On 
their  return  to  the  East  they  call  the  missionaries 
cranks  and  say  that  their  presence  in  Utah  is  an 
insult  to  such  fine  Christians  as  the  Mormons. 

The  "  Jack   Mormon  "  also  stands  in  the  way. 


Missions  Among  the  Mormons       167 

Though  a  Gentile  by  birth  and  training,  having 
no  use  for  their  religion,  nevertheless,  for  polit- 
ical, commercial,  social  or  other  selfish  reasons  he 
casts  in  his  lot  with  the  Mormons.  Men  who 
have  been  active  officials  in  churches  in  the  East 
locate  in  Utah  and  when  at  last  the  discouraged 
missionary  learns  their  identity  and  calls  upon 
them  he  is  still  more  discouraged.  Conversation 
something  like  this  occurs  : 

Minister : — I  hear  that  you  were  superintend- 
ent of  the  Sunday-school  in  our  church  in  the 
East.  We  are  surely  glad  to  welcome  reinforce- 
ments and  sincerely  hope  that  you  will  take  your 
place  with  us  for  we  sorely  need  all  the  help  that 
we  can  get. 

Doctor,  lawyer  or  merchant: — Yes,  I  was  quite 
active  once  but  I  have  served  my  time  at  that 
sort  of  thing.  I  am  out  here  to  make  money.  I 
hope  you  will  be  good  enough  not  to  mention 
my  former  church  connection  for  it  would  hurt 
my  business.  Forget  it. 

A  "  has  been  "  Christian  is  of  no  more  value 
for  the  building  of  the  kingdom  in  Utah  than  a 
"  has  been  "  egg  for  making  fine  cake. 

There  are  probably  more  atheists  in  Utah  in 
proportion  to  the  population  than  anywhere  else 
in  the  United  States.  Many  who  have  had  a 
deep  religious  experience  before  becoming  Mor- 
mons have  been  led  to  believe  that  they  would 
find  in  Mormonism  the  sunimum  bonum  of  all  re- 


i68    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

ligious  good.  Their  awakening,  their  disappoint- 
ment, their  despair  have  led  them  to  the  other  ex- 
treme of  denying  that  there  is  any  true  religion 
or  even  a  God.  Two  sisters  came  into  some 
evangelistic  meetings  in  Utah.  Their  father  had 
held  high  political  and  ecclesiastical  office.  In 
the  old  country  he  had  been  deeply  religious  but 
on  coming  to  Utah  he  had  discovered  the 
mockery  of  Mormonism.  He  went  into  blank 
atheism  and  taught  it  to  his  children. 

The  sisters  were  bright  school-teachers  be- 
tween twenty-five  and  thirty  years  of  age.  They 
became  so  interested  in  the  meetings  that  they 
sought  an  interview  with  the  pastor,  and  other 
Christian  workers.  It  was  then  that  they  heard 
for  the  first  time  the  story  of  the  cross.  The 
older  of  the  girls  was  much  moved  and  said  with 
great  emotion, "  No  one  ever  told  me  this  before," 
and  in  a  perfect  abandon  of  sobs  cried,  "  Oh,  my 
God !  if  I  only  could  believe  in  Christ !  "  So 
chilled  was  her  soul  by  the  atheistic  teachings  of 
her  father  that  even  the  love  of  Christ  did  not 
warm  her  heart.  This  story  is  both  true  and 
typical. 

While  holding  gospel  meetings  in  one  of  the 
towns  of  Utah  the  writer  became  interested  in  a 
woman  whose  father  had  been  a  polygamist  but, 
after  his  conversion,  had  united  with  an  evangel- 
ical church.  He  desired  to  make  provision  for 
his  other  wives  and  live  with  the  first  one.  She, 


Missions  Among  the  Mormons       169 

however,  was  so  staunch  in  her  Mormonism 
that  she  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  him. 
She  made  her  home  with  this  married  daughter. 
We  had  been  in  the  home  several  times  but  had 
never  been  introduced  to  the  mother.  One  night 
at  the  close  of  the  service  the  daughter  said :  "  I 
have  been  thinking  about  this  and  believe  that  I 
am  about  ready  to  settle  the  question,"  and  in- 
vited us  to  call  at  her  home  the  following  morn- 
ing to  talk  with  her  about  personal  religion.  It 
was  learned  afterwards  that  she  fixed  upon  this 
hour  because  her  husband  was  then  to  be  at 
home.  We  called  at  the  appointed  time,  and 
while  talking  with  the  husband,  who  was  a  Ro- 
man Catholic,  we  heard  the  wife  say  to  her 
mother  in  the  next  room,  "  Mr.  Kinney  is  here. 
Won't  you  come  in  and  meet  him  ?  "  She  did  so 
and  we  all  sat  down.  The  inquiring  woman  sat 
between  her  Catholic  husband  and  Mormon 
mother.  It  did  not  seem  to  be  a  propitious  oc- 
casion to  talk  to  her  about  her  relations  to  her 
Christ  but,  as  she  had  invited  the  interview,  we 
breathed  a  prayer  for  guidance  and,  ignoring  the 
others,  began  to  talk  to  her  about  her  duty  to 
God.  Her  face  lighted  up  with  that  "  light  that 
never  was  on  land  or  sea  "  and  soon  she  gently 
and  nobly  confessed  her  Lord.  She  was  ready 
to  accept  Christ  and  had  arranged  the  time  so 
that  her  husband  and  mother  might  witness  her 
confession.  That  was  as  heroic  as  many  a  mar- 


1 70    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

tyrdom.  A  martyr  may  not  have  to  keep  his 
courage  up  very  long.  It  may  not  take  endur- 
ing courage  to  die  for  Christ  but  it  takes  sus- 
tained courage  to  live  for  Him.  Before  we  left 
the  house  this  woman  went  to  the  telephone  and 
called  up  two  of  her  lifelong  friends,  who  had 
been  Mormons,  and  with  a  voice  breaking  with 
joy  told  them  of  her  new  experience  and  per- 
suaded them  to  come  with  her ;  some  days  later 
the  three  were  baptized  together  on  confession  of 
their  faith. 

It  is  hard  for  a  non-Mormon  to  realize  the  ter- 
rible obstacle  that  polygamy  presents  to  the  ac- 
ceptance of  Christianity  by  a  Mormon  even 
though  he  may  hate  it  with  all  his  soul.  The 
doctrine  exerts  a  powerful  influence  for  the  soli- 
darity of  Mormonism  because  a  large  proportion 
of  the  younger  Mormons  are  either  polygamous 
children  or  have  polygamous  relatives. 

"  They  cannot  dishonour  the  institution  (polyg- 
amy) without  dishonouring  their  own  fathers 
and  mothers.  '  Not  to  admit  the  purity  of  polyg- 
amy/ one  prominent  Mormon  said  to  the  writer, 
'is  to  pin  the  scarlet  letter  on  my  own  mother's 
breast  and  I  will  never  do  that.' "  * 

The- greatest  difficulty,  however,  is  the  lack  of 
suitable  workers.  Not  only  are  more  mission- 
aries needed  but  there  is  a  crying  need  for  more 
patriotic  men  and  women  who  will  take  their 

JB.  J.  Hendrick,  McClure's,  February,  1911. 


Missions  Among  the  Mormons       1 7 1 

stand  as  Christian  citizens.  Men  and  women 
ought  to  volunteer  to  live  and  work  in  Utah  im- 
pelled by  the  same  spirit  which  prompts  them  to 
go  to  the  foreign  field,  or  to  the  Indians,  or  to 
live  in  the  slum  districts  of  our  cities.  It  must 
not  be  forgotten  that  while  there  are  some  two 
hundred  evangelical  workers  in  Utah,  the  Mor- 
mon Church  has  1, 800  of  its  own  missionaries 
working  in  every  part  of  the  United  States  mak- 
ing proselytes  to  its  faith. 

Missionary  work  was  begun  in  Utah  by  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  1867.  By  the 
close  of  the  seventies  most  of  the  leading  evan- 
gelical churches  had  established  missions  which 
have  been  maintained  ever  since.  At  first  the 
work  was  positively  dangerous,  and  many  are 
the  stories  that  could  be  told  of  the  "  Heroes 
of  the  Cross  "  which  would  thrill  our  very  souls. 
With  the  ministers  went  their  wives  and,  later, 
trained  women  workers  for  school  and  church. 
These  God-sent  women  have  been  no  less  heroic 
than  their  brothers  and  have  often  suffered  even 
greater  privations  and  hardships.  They  went 
into  the  Mormon  homes  and  talked  with  the 
women,  dupes  and  slaves  of  Mormon  priestcraft. 
They  could  pray  for  them  and  sympathize  with 
them  as  no  man  could.  They  gathered  the  chil- 
dren of  these  homes  into  industrial  and  other 
classes  and  while  the  children  worked  the  women 
read  to  them  or  told  them  stories  of  Jesus  and 


172    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

His  love.  Popular  education  had  never  been  fa- 
voured, but  so  eager  were  the  children  for  learn- 
ing that  the  Mormons  were  obliged,  in  self-de- 
fense, to  establish  schools  of  all  kinds  which  they 
intended  to  keep  under  their  own  control.  Their 
children  were  being  educated  away  from  them. 

The  detailed  story  of  these  achievements  is 
too  long  to  be  fully  told  here.  It  is  estimated, 
however,  that  no  fewer  than  3,000  converts  from 
Mormonism  have  been  received  into  Christian 
churches.  Some  further  results  may  be  seen 
from  the  following  table  gathered  from  authentic 
sources : 


Missions  Among  the  Mormons        173 


Xyadojj  looqog  jo 


o"  o* 

•-•   Os  r 


s[idnd 


O 

O\ 


«  ^fr«    I  oo 


s.iaqOBaj,  |       ff 


N    w%O    ON  ir>O 
10  04    O\  OsvQ  00 


•op  'sassauopBaq;  [ 


I  2  2 


s>2i 


UIO.TJ  diqsjaquia^ 


io      O        O  fo 
N         W        vO  CO 


diqsaaquiaj^ 


00    xoQ    O  OO  OO 


suoissij^ 


«       •* 

oo  \o 
00  OO 


O       1 

r^  r>.v 

00  OO 


s  s 

go 


. 

Epi 


Epi 


Baptist 
Congrega 
Disciple 
Lutheran 
Methodis 
Presbyter 
Protestan 


1 74    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

In  addition  to  the  denominations  mentioned  in 
the  foregoing  table  it  should  be  remembered  that 
in  all  the  larger  cities  and  towns  the  Jews  and 
Catholics  have  a  numerous  following.  The  Ro- 
man Catholics  have  completed  within  a  few  years 
a  great  cathedral  in  Salt  Lake  City  which  cost 
several  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

It  should  also  be  said  that  there  are  several 
churches  of  smaller  denominations  than  those 
mentioned  in  the  table  scattered  around  the 
larger  towns  of  Utah.  In  the  cities  and  smaller 
towns  there  are  numbers  of  Greek  Catholics.  All 
this  is  mentioned  to  show  that  the  Mormons  do 
not  have  everything  quite  their  own  way  in  the 
larger  cities  and  in  a  few  of  the  smaller  ones. 

In  addition  to  the  achievements  that  have  been 
recorded  from  year  to  year  it  must  be  remembered 
that  here  are  working  plants  valued  at  nearly 
^2,ooo,ooo.1  They  are  still  returning  dividends  of 
redeemed  and  enlightened  souls  to  the  kingdom  of 
God.  We  must  press  the  battle  in  Utah  as  never 
before.  Christianity  is  on  trial — is  being  tested 
— here  as  nowhere  else.  Shall  we  allow  it  to  fail 
at  this  crucial  point  ? 

In  summing  up  the  results  of  Christian  missions 
in  Utah  we  must  not  forget  that  many  of  them 
are  by-products  whose  value  cannot  be  tabulated. 
This  is  truer  here  than  elsewhere. 

1  This  includes  a  reasonable  estimate  for  property  of  evangel- 
ical  denominations  not  mentioned  in  the  preceding  table. 


Missions  Among  the  Mormons       175 

In  December,  1911,  a  deputation  of  general 
workers  from  the  leading  denominational  bodies 
doing  missionary  work  in  Utah  visited  Salt  Lake 
City  and,  in  conference  with  their  local  represen- 
tatives and  workers,  began  to  lay  systematic 
plans  to  cover  the  needs  in  Utah  more  effectually. 

We  may  have  painted  a  dark  picture  but  there 
are  some  rays  of  light  visible  to  the  feeblest 
eye.  There  are  some  decidedly  encouraging 
conditions  besides  those  already  mentioned. 
The  Mormon  Church  itself  is  by  no  means  what 
it  was  when  the  first  Christian  missionaries  went 
to  Utah  and  braved  death  to  carry  the  Gospel  to 
the  Mormons.  During  all  of  these  years  sapping 
and  mining  processes  have  been  going  on.  There 
are  distinct  reasons  for  encouragement  in  press- 
ing the  battle  for  truth  and  righteousness. 

The  free  public  school  was  not  established  in 
Utah  until  the  year  1890.  Many  of  the  converts 
to  Mormonism  from  European  peasantry  had  no 
education  and  their  children  in  Utah  had  no  op- 
portunity. It  took  some  time  to  get  the  system 
into  complete  operation,  but  to-day  Utah  has  a 
splendid  public  school  system,  especially  con- 
sidered from  a  material,  or  educational,  point  of 
view.  Not  a  generation  has  yet  come  under  its 
enlightening  influence.  Mormonism  as  it  was 
and  still  is  cannot  abide  unchanged  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  enlightenment  of  our  American  and 
Christian  educational  institutions. 


176    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

Many  Mormon  young  men  are  graduating 
from  our  universities  and  professional  schools. 
The  majority  of  these  gradually  lose  connection 
with  the  Mormon  Church.  Few,  if  any,  of  the 
higher  priesthood  ever  graduated  from  an  ad- 
vanced institution  of  learning.  Thoroughly 
educated  young  men  are  a  very  poor  class  from 
which  to  recruit  the  Mormon  hierarchy.  The 
Mormonism  of  to-day  has  been  greatly  modified 
from  that  of  yesterday;  the  Mormonism  of  to- 
morrow will  have  been  radically  changed  from 
that  of  to-day.  Indeed,  this  transformation  has 
already  gone  much  farther  than  many  have 
thought.  Many  of  the  vagaries  of  the  religious 
fanatic,  which  the  early  Mormon  absorbed  from 
his  environment,  such  as  Millerism,  have  already 
been  eliminated.  The  Mormons  have  been 
obliged  to  abandon  the  practice  (if  not  the  belief) 
of  blood  atonement.  "  Speaking  in  tongues " 
and  absurd  miraculous  healings  are  not  mentioned 
as  often  in  their  public  gatherings  as  formerly. 
The  children  of  Mormon  parents  cannot  be  bound 
as  were  their  elders  and  are  a  fruitful  field  for  our 
endeavour. 

In  proof  of  what  has  been  said  about  the 
liberalizing  influences  now  at  work,  it  is  a  note- 
worthy fact  that  even  in  communities  where 
Christian  missionaries  have  never  gone,  the  moral 
tone  is  much  higher  than  formerly  ;  and  in  towns 
where  they  have  been  at  work  the  moral  and 


Missions  Among  the  Mormons      177 

social  conditions  are  infinitely  better  than  before 
such  work  was  done.  This  is  often  true  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  the  permanent  membership  in 
the  little  church  may  never  have  been  large. 
Simply  the  presence  of  a  godly  home  in  the 
community  is  a  rebuke  that  even  brazen  Mor- 
monism  cannot  wholly  ignore. 

Throughout  Utah  there  is  an  ever-increasing 
number  of  educated  Mormon  young  men  and 
women  who  appreciate  these  differences  and  are 
insisting  upon  higher  moral  and  social  standards 
in  their  leaders.  There  are  not  a  few  who  are 
demanding  that  they  shall  be  led  by  a  trained 
ministry.  This  is  a  thing  that  has  always  been 
scoffed  at  by  Mormonism.  It  has  hurled  its 
choicest  invectives  against  the  "  hireling  ministry" 
of  other  churches  but  this  new  sentiment  must  be 
reckoned  with  in  years  to  come. 

Is  the  Mormon  Church  growing  ?  The  answer 
depends  somewhat  upon  the  point  of  view.  The 
Mormons  make  great  claims  in  that  regard.  They 
would  like  to  have  it  true  "  Once  a  Mormon 
always  a  Mormon,"  but  it  is  by  no  means  so. 
However,  they  always  claim  it  except  in  cases  of 
definite  apostasy  or  excommunication. 

Some  who  ought  to  know  as  well  as  the  writer 
may  differ  from  him,  but  it  is  his  conclusion  that 
the  number  of  those  who  have  a  vital  faith  in 
Mormonism  for  their  own  salvation  is  not  largely 
on  the  increase.  On  the  other  hand  there  has 


178    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

been  in  the  last  few  years  great  increase  in  Mor- 
mon political  power.  How  do  we  reconcile  these 
apparently  paradoxical  statements  ? 

In  the  first  place,  there  are  hundreds  who, 
while  not  recognized  as  apostates,  have  lost  faith 
in  Mormonism  as  a  means  of  their  personal  sal- 
vation and  have  quietly  dropped  out  of  vital  con- 
nection with  the  church.  The  Mormons  make 
no  converts  in  Utah  from  the  Gentile  population 
except  in  cases  of  marriage  between  Mormons 
and  non-Mormons.  Such  examples  are  entirely 
without  significance,  however,  as,  in  fact,  many 
of  these  marriages  work  to  the  advantage  of  the 
Gentiles.  Then,  too,  in  spite  of  their  increased 
force  of  missionaries  all  over  the  world  they  are 
not  winning  the  converts  they  once  did.  This 
is  largely  because  foreign  nations,  as  a  result  of 
the  exposure  of  their  teachings  and  practices, 
have  expelled  their  missionaries,  or  warned  their 
people  against  them.  At  their  annual  con- 
ferences the  missionaries  almost  universally  sound 
a  note  of  discouragement.  In  telling  their  ex- 
periences for  the  past  few  years  they  almost 
invariably  wind  up  with  something  like  this : 
"  We  have  been  working  hard  and  faithfully  and 
while  the  results  have  not  been  what  we  had 
hoped  for,  yet  we  have  faith  to  believe  that  the 
seed  thus  sown  will  in  due  time  grow  into  a  har- 
vest." 

But  these  very  people  who  have  no  vital  con- 


Missions  Among  the  Mormons      179 

nection  with  Mormonism  as  a  religion  are  still 
Mormons  to  all  intents  and  purposes  when  it 
comes  to  voting.  Their  old  time  friends  and 
relatives  still  abide  in  the  church.  Having  no 
strong  anti-Mormon  conviction  they  naturally 
vote  with  the  hierarchy.  It  is  true  that  in  Salt 
Lake  City  the  Gentiles  preponderate  but  in  the 
state  as  a  whole  the  Mormons  overwhelmingly 
outnumber  the  Gentiles.  The  church  can  lose 
thousands  of  voters  from  Utah  and  still  abso- 
lutely dominate  all  its  politics  and  policies. 
These  spare  voters  are  colonized  in  the  sparsely 
settled  Western  states — not  in  sufficient  numbers 
to  outvote  all  Gentiles,  but  in  sufficient  numbers 
to  hold  the  balance  of  power  between  the  two 
dominant  political  parties  when  Mormonism  is 
not  an  issue.  Thus  it  is  that  the  hierarchy  can 
compel  the  party  in  power  to  accede  to  their 
demands  and  they  are  not  at  all  modest  in  mak- 
ing them.  The  Mormon  hierarchy  was  abso- 
lutely regnant  in  the  political  affairs  of  Salt 
Lake  City  long  after  the  Gentiles  outnumbered 
them. 

The  Mormon  Church  is  so  fixed  in  its  belief 
that  it  is  the  true  Israel  that,  to  this  day,  it  calls 
all  people  outside  its  own  fellowship  Gentiles. 
The  Mormons  are  the  only  people  in  the  world 
who  would  call  a  Jew  a  Gentile. 

Evangelical  churches  hold  that  all  true  believ- 
ers in  Jesus  are  the  true  Israel.  If  they  are  cor- 


180    Mormonism,  The  Islam  of  America 

rect  then  we  may  look  upon  the  Mormon  as  the 
modern  Samaritan. 

The  purpose  of  this  book  is  to  show  that  we 
have  not  gone  into  this  Samaria  with  the  Gospel 
of  Jesus  "  once  for  all  delivered  unto  the  saints  " 
in  any  adequate  way.  It  is  confessedly  written 
from  the  point  of  view  of  evangelical  Christianity 
and  in  the  interest  of  patriotic  Christian  citizen- 
ship in  the  American  Republic,  for  after  all  is 
said  and  done  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
only  solution  for  the  evils  of  Mormonism. 


APPENDIX 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

MORMON  SOURCES 

Book  of  Mormon,  500. ;  Doctrine  and  Covenants, 
500. ;  Pearl  of  Great  Price,  350. ;  Mormonism,  Its 
Origin  and  History,  by  Roberts,  ice. ;  Catechism 
for  Children,  150.  ;  Key  to  Theology,  250.;  Tullidge's 
Life  of  Brigham  Young ;  Biographical  Sketches  by 
Lucy  Smith. 

.The  above  may  be  obtained  from  the  Deseret  News 
Book  Store,  Salt  Lake  City:  Numerous  pamphlets 
will  be  sent  free  on  application.  The  Journal  of  Dis- 
courses was  published  by  the  Mormon  Church,  but 
copies  of  this  work  are  now  very  rare. 

The  periodicals,  Millennial  Star  and  Times  and 
Seasons  were  Mormon  publications,  but  can  be  found 
in  only  a  few  historical  collections. 

PERIODICALS 

Under  the  Prophet  in  Utah,  by  Ex-United  States 
Senator  Frank  J.  Cannon ;  in  Everybody**  from  De- 
cember, 1910,  to  August,  1911.  For  other  material 
see  Poolers  Index,  Reader* s  Guide,  Publisher's 
Annual  Trade  List,  United  States  Catalogue,  etc. 
Cannon's  Under  the  Prophet  is  published  in  book 
form  by  C.  M.  Clark  Publishing  Co.,  Boston;  net 


184  Appendix 

HISTORICAL  BOOKS 

Linn,   W.  A. — The  Story    of  the  Mormons.     Mac- 

millan  Co.     $4.00.     By  far  the  best  modern 

history. 

Tucker —  Origin,  Rise  and  Progress  of  Mormonism. 
Howe — Mormonism  Unveiled. 
Patterson —  Who  Wrote  the  Mormon  Bible  ? 
Caswell — The  City  of  the  Mormons. 
Wyly — Mormon  Portraits. 
Pratt,  P.  P.  (Mormon) — Autobiography. 
Dickenson — New  Light  on  Mormonism. 
Demming — Naked  Truths  About  Mormonism. 
Gregg — History  of  Hancock  County,  Illinois. 
Stenhouse    (Ex- Mormon) — Rocky   Mountain  Saints 

and  Tell  It  All. 

Ferris —  Utah  and  the  Mormons. 
Turner — Mormonism  In  All  Ages. 
Lee — Mormonism    Unveiled   (Confessions    of    John 

D.  Lee). 

Hyde — Mormonism  Exposed. 
Bennett — History  of  the  Saints. 
Greene — Facts    Relative    to   the  Expulsion  of  the 

Mormons  from  Missouri. 
Ford — History  of  Illinois. 
Burton — City  of  the  Saints. 
Folk — The  Mormon  Monster. 
Hickman — Brigham* s  Destroying  Angels. 
Riley — The   Founder  of  Mormonism   (A   study   in 

the  psychology  of  Joseph  Smith). 

FICTION 

Wilson — The  Lions  of  the  Lord. 
Henry— By  Order  of  the  Prophet. 


Appendix  185 

BOOKLETS 

Lamb — The  Mormons  and  Their  Bible.  250.  The 
American  Baptist  Publication  Society. 

Schroeder — The  Origin  of  the  Book  of  Mormon. 

Call,  Lamoni — Two  Thousand  Changes  in  the  Book 
of  Mormon.  Bountiful,  Utah. 

Tribune,  Salt  Lake  City — Mysteries  of  the  Endow- 
ment House,  Extracts  From  Testimony  in 
the  Smoot  Case,  Protest  of  Citizens  Against 
Smoot,  The  Inside  of  Mormonism. 

Freece,  Hans  P — Send  stamps  for  anti-Mormon  litera- 
ture. Address  655  W.  lyyth  St.,  New  York 
City.  Special  booklet,  How  Mormons  Re- 
cruit Abroad. 


B 

RESUME  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  MORMON  POLYGAMY 

Forbidden  by  Book  of  Mormon,  published  1830. 

Rumours  of  its  practice  beginning  at  Kirtland. 

Forbidden  again  in  1835. 

Practical  admission  by  Quorum  of  Seventies,  1837. 

Mormons  now  admit  that  it  was  practiced  at  Nauvoo. 

Revelation  commanding  it  alleged  to  have  been  re- 
ceived, 1843. 

The  Smiths  excommunicate  Hyrum  Brown  for  polyg- 
amy eight  months  later. 

Officially  denied  by  the  Smiths,  March  15,  1844. 

Strenuously  denied  for  nine  years,  proclaimed  1852. 

Practically  unmolested  until  1882. 

Checked  by  Edmunds-Tucker  law,  1888. 

Manifesto  advising  against  unlawful  marriages,  1890. 


i86  Appendix 

Mormon  leaders  swore  Manifesto  forbade  all  polygamy, 

1891. 
Leaders  promised  Congress  to  abandon  it  as  doctrine 

of  faith  and  practice,  1894. 
State  laws  against  these  crimes  passed  in  1896. 
Evans  Bill  making  punishment  impossible  passed  (but 

vetoed),  1901. 
Eight  of  the  fifteen  in  the  Two  Quorums  polygamists 

in  1911. 
Salt  Lake  City  Tribune  publishes  a  list  of  224 l  known 

cases  of  new  polygamy  with  details. 
Practiced  and  taught  from  1840  (or  earlier)  until  the 

present  time  as  much  as  they  have  dared. 
It  is  yet,  whatever  may  be  said  to  the  contrary,  not- 
withstanding. 


COVENANT  ON  POLYGAMY 

{From  Section  32) 

4.  For  behold  !  I  reveal  unto  you  a  new  and  ever- 
lasting covenant ;  and  if  ye  abide  not  that  covenant, 
then  are  ye  damned ;  for  no  one  can  reject  this  cove- 
nant and  be  permitted  to  enter  my  glory ; 

6.  And  as  pertaining  to  the  new  and  everlasting 
covenant,  it  was  instituted  for  the  fullness  of  my  glory, 

1  There  can  be  no  polygamy  without  at  least  three  persons 
involved,  a  husband  and  two  wives.  When  it  is  remembered 
that  there  are  often  more  wives  it  can  easily  be  seen  that  thou- 
sands may  be  involved  in  the  above  cases.  Joseph  F.  Smith 
has  five  wives  and  forty-three  children,  making  with  himselt 
forty-nine  people  involved  in  this  one  case.  In  addition  there 
are  the  chiidren-in-law  and  grandchildren. 


Appendix  187 

and  he  that  receiveth  a  fullness  thereof  must  and  shall 
abide  the  law,  or  he  shall  be  damned,  saith  the  Lord 
God. 

15.  Therefore,  if  a  man  marry  him  a  wife  in  the 
world,  and  he  marry  her  not  by  me,  nor  by  my  word ; 
and  he  covenant  with  her  so  long  as  he  is  in  the  world, 
and  she  with  him,  their  covenant  and  marriage  are  not 
of  force,  when  they  are  dead  and  when  they  are  out 
of  the  world ;  therefore  they  are  not  bound  by  any 
law  when  they  are  out  of  the  world  ; 

1 6.  Therefore,  when  they  are  out  of  the  world, 
they  neither  marry  nor  are  given  in  marriage ;  but  are 
appointed  angels  in  heaven,  which  angels  are  minister- 
ing servants,  to  minister  to  those  who  are  of  a  far  more, 
and  an  exceeding,  and  an  eternal  weight  of  glory ; 

17.  For  these  angels  did  not  abide  my  law,  there- 
fore they  cannot  be  enlarged,  but  remain  separately 
and  singly,  without  exaltation,  in  their  saved  condi- 
tion, to  all  eternity,  and  henceforth  are  not  Gods  but 
are  angels  of  God,  forever  and  ever. 

19.  And,  again,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  if  a  man 
marry  a  wife  by  my  word,  which  is  my  law,  and  by 
the  new  and  everlasting  covenant,  and  it  is  sealed  unto 
them  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  Promise,  by  him  who  is 
anointed,  unto  whom   I  have  appointed  this  power, 
and  the  keys  of  this  Priesthood  ;     .     .     .     and  they 
shall  pass  by  the  angels,  and  the  Gods,  which  are  set 
there,  to  their  exaltation  and  glory  in  all  things,  as  hath 
been  sealed  upon  their  heads,  which  glory  shall  be  a  full- 
ness and  a  continuation  of  the  seeds  forever  and  ever. 

20.  Then  shall  they  be  Gods,  because  they  have 
no  end ;  therefore  shall  they  be  from  everlasting  to 


l88  Appendix 

everlasting,   because  they  continue;  then  shall  they 
be  above  all,  because  all  things  are  subject  unto  them. 

27.  .  .  .  and  he  that  abideth  not  this  law  can 
in  no  wise  enter  into  my  glory,  but  shall  be  damned, 
saith  the  Lord. 

38.  David  also  received  many  wives  and  concu- 
bines as  also  Solomon  and  Moses  my  servants ;  as 
also  many  other  of  my  servants,  from  the  beginning  of 
creation  until  this  time  ;  and  in  nothing  did  they  sin, 
save  in  those  things  which  they  received  not  of  me. 

52.  And  let  mine  handmaid,  Emma  Smith,  re- 
ceive all  those  that  have  been  given  unto  my  serv- 
ant Joseph,  and  who  are  virtuous  and  pure  before 
me.  .  .  . 

54.  And  I  command  mine  handmaid,  Emma 
Smith,  to  abide  and  to  cleave  unto  my  servant  Joseph, 
and  to  none  else.  But  if  she  will  not  abide  this  com- 
mandment, she  shall  be  destroyed,  saith  the  Lord, 
for  I  am  the  Lord,  thy  God,  and  will  destroy  her,  if 
she  abide  not  in  my  law. 

61.  And  again  as  pertaining  to  the  law  of  the 
Priesthood  :  If  any  man  espouse  a  virgin  and  desire 
to  espouse  another,  and  the  first  give  her   consent; 
and  if  he  espouse  a  second  and  they  are  virgins,  and 
have  vowed  to  no  other  man,  then  he  is  justified ;  he 
cannot  commit  adultery,  for  they  are  given  unto  him, 
for  he  cannot  commit  adultery  with  that  that  belongeth 
unto  him  and  to  no  one  else. 

62.  And  if  he  have  ten  virgins  given  unto  him  by 
this  law,  he  cannot  commit  adultery,  for  they  belong 
to  him,  and  they  are  given  unto  him,  therefore  is  he 
justified. 

63.  ...     for  they  are  given  unto  him  to  mul- 
tiply and  replenish  the  earth,  according  to  my  com- 


Appendix  189 

mandment,  and  to  fulfill  the  promise  which  was  given 
by  my  Father  before  the  foundation  of  the  world  ; 
and  for  their  exaltation  in  the  eternal  worlds  that  they 
may  bear  the  souls  of  men ;  for  herein  is  the  work  of 
my  Father  continued,  that  he  may  be  glorified. 

64.  And  again,  verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  if 
any  man  have  a  wife,  who  holds  the  keys  of  this 
power,  and  he  teaches  unto  her  the  Law  of  my  Priest- 
hood, as  pertaining  to  these  things,  then  shall  she  be- 
lieve, and  administer  unto  him,  or  she  shall  be  des- 
troyed, saith  the  Lord  your  God,  for  I  will  destroy 
her ;  for  I  will  magnify  my  name  upon  all  those  who 
receive  and  abide  in  my  law. 

N.  B.  Attention  should  be  given  to  number  26 
which  reads  : 

"Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  if  a  man  marry 
a  wife  according  to  my  word,  and  they  be  sealed  by 
the  Holy  Spirit  of  Promise,  according  to  mine  ap- 
pointment, and  he  or  she  shall  commit  any  sin  or 
transgression  of  the  new  and  everlasting  covenant 
whatever,  and  all  manner  of  blasphemies,  and  if  they 
commit  no  murder,  wherein  they  shed  innocent  blood 
— yet  shall  they  come  forth  in  the  first  resurrection, 
and  enter  into  their  exaltation. " 

In  other  words,  if  a  man  is  a  polygamist  he  can 
commit  any  sin  except  murder  and  yet  will  be  exalted, 
and  murder  consists  in  the  shedding  of  innocent  blood 
only.  The  inference  is  that  if  they  believe  a  man  is 
guilty  of  anything  it  is  not  murder  to  shed  his  blood. 


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